The
measure of happiness has been a topic of debate in the Sinagporean Parliament
over the last few days, and constant references to Bhutan have been made as
well.
However, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in the debate that he
visited Bhutan a few years ago and he saw that the over-romanticised version of
GNH did not fit the reality in Bhutan.
He confronted that Bhutan is not the "Shangri-la on earth".
And he cited reasons why:
"Most of the time,
I saw unhappy people [in Bhutan], toiling in the field, worried about the next
harvest and whether there would be buyers for their products. They have studied
us because Singapore is also a tiny nation, living next to big neighbours.
"We have successfully transited from third world to first, and managed to
create a functioning and harmonious society for our people. In their minds,
Singapore could well be the Shangri-la and they want Bhutan to emulate
Singapore."
The REVA electric car which has
been introduced in Bhutan since 2009 didn’t attract us. Though eco-friendly and
enables zero emission driving, there are many challenges associated
with EVs. This car can run only 80 km for a battery, a normal charge
takes 8 hours, and its maximum speed is 80 km/h. That’s why people still prefer
conventional combustion-engine vehicles.
A new Hope: A new hope is born as the Thunder Motors Electric
Vehicles (TMEV), a Bhutanese based company will be launching its first batch of
electric cars (half and full body cars, SUVs) by the end of this October. Price will range from Nu 400,000 to Nu 1.4 million. Interestingly, the
company will also manufacture larger vehicles.
According to the Managing Director
with the TMEV, the vehicles have been designed to suit Bhutanese conditions and
are eco-friendly. The components of the vehicles are imported from other
countries: controllers are purchased from the USA, batteries from China, and
body parts from Japan and the motors from Germany. This time the vehicle is
finally assembled in china; however, from next year the company is hopeful to
start assembling in Bhutan.
Battery and its durability: The fully charged vehicle will run
between 200-500 KMs. It will take about six hours to charge batteries at home,
while at charging stations it will take only 10 minutes.
Reduce the country’s dependency on Indian Rupees: The introduction
of eclectic cars would drastically decrease fuel dependency in the country and cut
down the fuel imports by 50 %. Today the RGOB spends about Nu 5 billions on
fuel import every year.
Cost effective: An individual have to spend only Nu 35 to Nu 70
every month charging the battery. Around 40 to 80 units of electricity will be
enough to last a month.
Conversion: Interestingly the cars with combustion engines can be
converted as electric cars by replacing the engines with electric motors. The conversion
cost for larger vehicles range from Nu 400,000 to Nu 500,000, while smaller
vehicles can get it done for Nu 100,000 to Nu 200,000. Two wheelers will cost
Nu 40,000. It will take between five to 20 days for the conversion process to
complete depending on the size.
Charging stations: TMEV will build charging stations at certain
locations, as the plans have already mapped out as to how the station would
function.
Challenges: Lack of awareness among the public and also at the policy making level. Bhutanese businessmen are very skeptic to invest in
electric vehicles. Support from the government is very imperative in the initial
three years as people are reluctant to pay for conversion.
With the availability
of cheap electricity and the national policy that emphasizes on environmental conservation
and the country’s dependency on Indian oil, this eco-friendly project initiated
by TMEV should be supported by the people and our government. The government
have to provide unwavering supports by providing financial helps and exempting it from
import duties and other taxes.
All my fellow bloggers have composed poems, lyrics, appreciations and sonnets to the royal couple and they have beautifully posted on their blogs. I felt that I wouldn't be doing justice until I compose a poem of praises to our majesties. And I tried really hard to compose, but all in vain. I realized then I can never compose poem. But I have for you a beautifully crafted poem by Tshering Tashi, a class XI student of Punakha HSS (which I have taken it out from Nobu's blog, teacher). Read it below:
The moment I heard the news,
I emptied my heart, and filled it with
happiness,
For I could not help but feel
overwhelmed,
For I could not help but feel sheer joy.
Your
Highness Ashi Jetsun Pema, Thank
you for making my King happy. Thank
you for holding His hand, And
thank you for being kind to us.
You
are that new light, That
will further brighten my King’s World. The
World that two of you will nurture together, In
happiness, in love, with compassion, and with maturity.
My
King has always made His people happy. But
by deciding to give us a Queen, He
has made us even happier, And
by choosing Ashi Jetsun Pema.
On
this joyous auspicious occasion, The
gods and goddesses will come to Earth, For
Heaven then will be on Earth. When
our King will take his bride.
I
wish I could express all the joy that’s in my heart. Join
my hands and smile a contented smile. A
smile like a smile at the end of reading a fairy tale, For I see and know the pair will
live, ‘Happily Ever after’.
Last Sunday I was travelling back
from Gelephu. I was shell-shocked, and more than that angry. At various checkpoints
on the Gelephu-Thimphu highway, there were frequent inspections by regional
immigration and police officials. I understand that the checking is for national
security, but, we want the immigration and police officials to deal us
humanely.
I dare say that the inspectors
are giving brutal harassment to the travelers. Firstly, they didn’t announce
the public extensively to carry the identity cards with them while traveling. This is the reason
many travelers are denied entry from the check points and harassed unnecessarily.
Secondly, there’s a need to knock
down some manners in the police officials who are on inspections. They act and
speak so rude to the passengers. They treat
the travelers as criminals. We understand they’re doing all this for the security
of our country. But ours is a civilized society. We cooperate with them if they
deal us humanely.
Perhaps they think that only
policemen are serving the Tsa-wa-sum. The truth is that we as citizens of this country
also serve the Tsa-wa-sum. The reality is that we’re on different leagues of
arm forces, civil servants, corporate employees, businessmen or framers.
Next time when we have such great
event in our country, I suggest the MoHCA to inform the public in general extensively about the inspections. This kind
of sudden inspection only arouses rues over public and mistreatments from the
inspectors. And yeah, to the head of the RBP-better knock down civil attitude
in your police officials and make them public-friendly.
Teachers in Bhutan are civil
servants. As civil servants, teachers (to uphold the higher moral integrity and
as law abiding citizens) are obliged to remain apolitical. But how this
contributes to the learning of school children to be well-educated and democratic
youth citizens?
Today, many teachers shy off when
their students ask questions pertaining to politics (Tobacco Control Act, CDG, political funding, Gyelposhing land and lottery scam). Students, our children want to know all this, develop critical thinking. Well, this is embarrassing when teachers would respond to their students, “Shhh! We, as civil servants, are not allowed to talk on this.”
Similarly, I am a civil servant, not a teacher though. If my kids or my young
nieces and nephews ask me about the political issues, should I run away from
them or shout at them to keep shut. But, it is undeniably
very unhealthy trend being taking root in our young democracy.
I understand and respect that the
BCSR 2007 has for the civil servants to be neutral on politics. But by
tightening shut the teachers and civil servants’ mouths, aren’t we blocking our
young people from learning and more importantly depriving them from becoming effective and
democratic citizens? Or are we just blatantly neglecting the voices of youth (considering inexperience),
their right to information? Or are we just demolishing the youth’s bridge to be
productive and responsible citizens in democratic Bhutan?
I am never at ease each time I utter
this word. A Dzongkha word, unfortunately. Don’t be surprised! Je khenpo is the word I am talking
about. In short, supposedly, we called it Je.
Don’t laugh! I can anticipate your predictable reaction. For I know you would
be giggling there.
Je
Khenpo or Je is the Head Abbot
in Bhutan. But an unavoidable shame clinches me, uncomfortably though, because
the thing (dirty) of men is explicitly reminded to me each time I utter or hear
this word. Say you Je. Once more, say
it out loud. Ermmm! Didn’t it remind you about that thing? Now you trust me I’m not a bluff.
Am I blaspheming here? However, as our
belief would have it, now I’d be dragged into an unpardonable sin for
ridiculing this spiritual word. If you’re a staunch Buddhist, you can throw a swift
punch on my face…spoil the geography and bring me back to consciousness. Enough
said, right?
But you’re wrong if you’re thinking
that I am an atheist or anti-Buddhist. I believe in an ideology of
“impermanence”, “life after death”, “compassionate and responsible living”. But
this word, Je, is the sexiest Dzongkha
term for me and today nothing is stopping me from sharing this post with you.
Suffice it to say, these two words have
different spellings in the Dzongkha Dictionary, but both sound no different and
they carry the same intonation to me. Guess what? When I have to say or talk
about Je khenpo, I am always stuck in
a dilemmatic situation. But listen here; I have a trick to fool my listeners. I
always utter Je very swiftly, so that
Khenpo can overtake it immediately. Like this, J’ Khenpo. Ha-ha!
I blame myself for not taking genuine
interest in learning Dzongkha language, but I can reason out that the language also do the justice to attract us. Much as I hated to admit it that Dzongkha
lacks vocabulary, and we’re worrying the slow demise of our national language. Perhaps
more tellingly, another word would duly assist my argument here. Again I have
to sacrifice my principles. As you’d be anticipating, Jedha is the word that would justify your apprehensions. And I will
tell you how Dzongkha lacks vocabulary through this word.
This is the most commonly used word by
the people of all walks of life in Bhutan. I don’t know exactly what it means literally as no teacher or syllabus taught us about this word in the schools,
but undoubtedly it carries almost identical connotation of an English word
“Fuck”. In Dzongkha, jedha is used to
express negative emotions. It is the only word to show our anger, pain, disappointment
and frustration. In good old days perhaps our ancestors were never frustrated,
angry or disappointed. So there’s no need of discovering words to describe
these feelings. Now, unfortunately, jedha
has to supplement all frustration, anger, hatred and depression that modernity
has produced. Thanks to Jedha!
Interestingly, it can be abbreviated
as dha.
This word is also used to greet
friends, “Jedha! Nam hongyi tshey.”
Also, we use this word to express surprise. A good example is here: “Jedha! Bum jarim dhu mey,” my friend
would exclaim if I were dating a pretty girl.
It can be also used as a “pause” word.
“Khatsha, dha, nga, dha, taxi mathoba lakha tangyi, dha,” a boy would say to his friend when
he has to explain that yesterday he had tough time finding a taxi.
Very recently, I counted how many
times I utter this word a day. Not surprisingly, huh, I uttered it 60 times.
Once in the morning when I got up late from the bed, three times in my
washroom, six times when I wear my gho, ten times when crossing traffics, 20 times
to the Bhutan Telecom Ltd (slow internet and mobile network congestion), ten
times to my bosses and ten times to my friends.
My final observation, though bizarrely
weird, has been that if jedha was a
chanting mantra then every Bhutanese would accumulate enough merits and ascend
to heaven.
Apology: Say jedha to me if this post had terribly disgusted you!
How many of you ever thought of donating your organs for other? Or have you ever come across any such person?
Let me introduce you here a 19-year old woman who is willing to donate one of her kidneys. That’s also for free! Suffice it to say, she’s doing something quite out of the extraordinary to bring difference in other’s life.
Believe it!
Pic: Yewong with Executive Director of BKA
Yewong Lhasel Wangmo is her good name. A divorcee and single mother of three-year old kid, she runs her own handicraft shop in the Paro Town. She is a Bumthap.
Just a week ago, she impressed me and all the committed members of the Bhutan Kidney Association (BKA). The BKA is a public benefit non-governmental organization (will be certified very soon) founded by Mr. Tashi Namgay (Executive Director), a civil servant and kidney transplant recipient since 2005. The young single mother smsed the Executive Director (ED):
I am Yewong Lhasel Wangmo from Paro and I am 19 years old. I got your phone number from Tandin Bidha's facebook page [film actor, also committed member of BKA] and I read about the Bhutan Kidney Association. I am very proud of you guys taking such a noble initiative-a big responsibility and helping others. I am also very much interested to help others so I just want to tell you guys that if there’s any kidney failure patient with B+ve blood group, let me know. I am always ready to donate one of my kidneys.
Amongst the members of the association, a sense of awe and homage was born that contained so much to admire Yewong’s unshakable devotion to donate her organ to help other.
After a few days, all the way from Paro, Yewong arrived at Changjiji in Thimphu to meet the Executive Director to assure the association that she’s genuine and that‘d virtually guaranteed her breakthrough decision to donate her organ. After their meeting, on the BKA facebook page, the ED wrote:
Today I met a wonderful human, Yewong Lhasel Wangmo. We had tête-à -tête for an hour about the current situation of the kidney-related issues in Bhutan. She is very confident to donate one of her kidneys. She is the first Bhutanese who volunteered and came to me for organ donation. And she left a message, "If anyone needs my kidney (B+ve) then please call me".
This message of hers is heavily weighted with an inexhaustible treasure-house of compassion and divinity. Perhaps more tellingly, there hasn’t the faintest ounce of hesitation in giving away her organ. She has inherited what has been pure and noble-the hugest of sacrifice, the greatest of inspiration.
Yewong is the pioneer who has demystified a hoodoo spell of Bhutanese being very reluctant to donate our organs. Her act of bodhisattva has now undoubtedly injected in our otherwise vaingloriously obsessed minds a fair dose of helping other altruistically, even with our own body parts. Because she already knew there are many who need our excess organs.
When asked what the intent behind donating her organ is, she replies, “Till now I haven’t done anything good, so now I want to do something which makes me feel proud and I want to save other’s lives . I would donate my kidney for free. Peace!” Also, she always encourages other to help those underprivileged and needy. She believes she is undone and won’t be happy until she could bring difference in other’s lives.
I will never forget the harrowing experience of last evening. I narrowly escaped from the death’s jaw! Yes, I am talking about the 6.8 magnitude naka that hit Bhutan at 6:41 PM last evening.
Let me report you my observation and my own experience from the place I stay. I live at Motithang in Thimphu, on the sixth floor of a yellow building. That moment, I was watching a BPL football match on TV in my bedroom. Tottenham’s Luka Modric scored a goal against Liverpool. I was celebrating the score with the team when my TV started shaking so hard. Novels from my shelf started falling down. My cosmetics started rolling here and there and things in the washroom hit the floor. It’s undeniably an earthquake, I reacted immediately.
Training had taught me to crawl under the table when you are hit by the earthquake, but I have only one living room centre table, that’s also glass one. I ran out of the apartment with my sister, barefoot and the door unlocked. Forget about the things in my apartment (which I bought with my last one year’s savings), forget about my parents and beloved ones, from the sixth floor of the building I ran for my life-downstairs, toward the ground. The building shook so thunderously that I felt that the building was running over the course of a rough road, in high speed. A riotous sound of unlikely colliding building was produced. Other tenants were crying, shouting for their kids and rushing downstairs. Some were crawling downstairs as the building shook heavily.
All of us were dumbstruck, nervous and lost.
Honestly speaking, I had only one thing in my mind, which is guaranteed undoubtedly. That before I reach the ground floor I would be smashed into the building’s crashes and become a dead log in a few seconds. I didn’t apprehend exactly how I reached the ground floor when the naka stopped after 12 seconds (approximately). It means within a dozen of seconds or even less I could run from the sixth to the ground floor. If I had this pace and stamina in the Olympic then I would have broken the record of the world’s fastest track runner, Usain Bolt.
Residents were considerably relieved after they could make on the ground. Every one in Motithang stayed outside, still hesitant to move in fearing aftershocks.
A rumour had it that again there’ll be “a more dangerous naka at 8:30 PM”. All the residents of Motithang waited outside till 9 PM expecting another shock. But rumour was always rumour, a false one. Another rumour had it that there’ll be a shock at 11 PM. Though raining intermittently, we stayed outside till midnight, some under the umbrella, car owners in their cars and other under the tree shades. Most of us never returned homes, we slept outside in our cars because yet another rumour said “there will be shake again”.
But what had disappointed me so bitterly last night was not that the naka shook us. As I watched the BBS TV for information, the lousy BBS proved it lousiest character yet again. Damn, instead of covering live news on the earthquake, it was telecasting LIVE Drungtsho programme. It carried no information on its footage other than the earthquake’s magnitude and its epicenter. And the host consoled the viewers, “Don’t panic!” But what we wanted that hour is not the moral consolation from a TV host but reliable sources speaking to us whether the rumours we had are true or not. We wanted our voices and concerns (like rumour) to be heard instantly through mass media. We wanted the RJs and TV journalists to visit the panicking public and reach our concerns to the concerned authorities right away, but until last night I knew how unconcerned and unprofessional they are.
Also, the home ministry and the department of disaster management showed their sheer ineffectiveness, unprofessionalism and unpreparedness in dealing with the natural disaster. In such incident they should have monitored arm forces in the crowded areas like Motithang, the town, Changjiji and Olakha to stop people from panicking and avoiding them from moving in until aftershocks are over. They should have used the radio stations, the TV and the mobile networks in disseminating the relevant information to the panicking general public immediately.
