Commentaries on Bhutan

Lifting the ban on sale of Tobacco? Hopeful

2012-01-16T12:02:00.000+06:00

As I write this now, the National Council of Bhutan is debating the Amendment to the Tobacco Control Act bill. I was glad to read in NC member (Gasa) Sangay Khandu’s blog that 11 members of the NC have voted to remove the ban on the sale of Tobacco in Bhutan. While this is far from the majority in a house of 25 members, the remaining members are divided in their opinion, so this is still the

The King and I

2011-11-08T14:01:00.000+06:00

I haven’t slept on my own bed for more than a week at a stretch since August this year- I have been fortunate to have been a part of the Royal Entourage travelling into the east in September- my first ‘Eastern Tour’ accompanying His Majesty- and then I was able to witness the Royal Wedding in Punakha, and then travel to India accompanying His Majesty on the first Royal State Visit since the

PM's interview on BBS

2011-09-08T17:12:00.000+06:00

I thought that the Prime Minister’s interview yesterday on BBS was rather important, and expected the papers today to discuss the many things he said, because he said a lot of things which merits discussion and papers are ideal for that. Unfortunately nothing like that happened, Kuensel reported accurately what he said about Gyelposhing (I suppose the editors didn’t feel it was necessary to

Rioting in England and youth here

2011-08-10T09:51:00.000+06:00

Watching the London Riots unfold and take over the whole of UK is appalling. I watch the TV with disbelief, as people burn buildings and cars, young men and women -some hooded, others not caring that they could be identified, run out of shops with whatever they can loot, stealing and destroying property that belongs to someone in their own neighbourhood, perhaps someone they know. Some boys

NC members are political

2011-07-07T10:02:00.000+06:00

I caught a small bit of the NA proceedings yesterday and saw an MP comment that NC members do not deserve money for constituency visits because 'NC members are apolitical'. Now, because I did not watch the entire proceedings where the members of the National Assembly deliberated on the role of NC and NA, I will not comment on the need for such a budget or who has a right to veto financial bills

State funding for political parties?

2011-07-06T14:37:00.001+06:00

Although this issue has been on my mind for a while now, I thought it was irrelevant once the National Council rejected NA’s amendments to the Election Act that would allow state funding for political parties. But in his state of the nation report in the parliament, the Prime Minister spent a good amount of time arguing for it, indicating that the issue is far from closed as far as the DPT

My friend the dairy farmer

2011-06-09T15:16:00.002+06:00

facebook photo Youngten Lempen Tharchen, or Tharchen, to his friends, is a graduate from Sherubtse College, Kanglung, a former journalist, and a dairy farmer in Dagana. Always resourceful, Tharchen is intelligent and would have done well at the civil service exams, but instead he chose to avail an interest-free loan from Loden Foundation and set up a small dairy farm in his village in Dagana.

On bad laws

2011-06-03T17:21:00.000+06:00

Whenever we see come across a problem like drug use or unemployment, for instance, we automatically mutter that ‘they’ should make a law to solve it. But having observed laws being made nationally and internationally, I am increasingly convinced that laws do little to solve problems. And I think the reason laws are useless is because the people who make the laws go with the assumption that the

A coupleof reposts on Information and BICMA

2011-05-22T16:59:00.003+06:00

Blogger is no good, I lost two posts to the murky depths of the internet and it doesn't look like they will resurface soon. Unfortunately I haven't kept copies of those posts, because I have the bad habit of typing straight in the site. But I remember what they were about, and so I will attempt to repeat what I wrote. They won't be as lengthy as the original ones, I am afraid. Or maybe thats a

October 2011 is what we are waiting for!

2011-05-21T22:43:00.000+06:00

I am going to change the name of this blog, because I feel it no longer describes what I write, or want to write here. My “job” has mutated into varied areas, and sometimes I want to write things that are not strictly from work, but describe basically whatever happens to occur to me. I am still struggling with a new name, though, so suggestions are welcome. Unfortunately I cannot change the URL,

A word on the facebook ban.

2011-04-19T20:12:00.000+06:00

I have said in my previous posts that I am averse to bans. The meat ban on holy months, the tobacco sale ban and even the plastic ban. There were bans on certain TV channels, which was silly, too, and I am glad it’s not there anymore. I mean I don’t exactly know if they are still there, but I see MTV on my cable so I suppose that’s not an issue anymore. The latest ban to hit the new is the ‘

The world of bans

2011-04-13T15:56:00.000+06:00

Recently, a ban on the muslim veil, burqua, came into force in France. This means that Muslim women in France can no longer wear the burqua. My first reaction to this news, last year when the legislation was passed, was of disagreement. An average Bhutanese like me is already averse to bans in all its forms, I suppose. We have had our fill, with plastic and meat and now tobacco and perhaps, soon,

Tobacco Crime

2011-03-03T23:00:00.001+06:00

So the monk who was caught with some packets of BABA kahini gets three years in jail. I am waiting for the uproar. Although I don’t understand why we had to wait for a person to go through all this to make a noise about just how wrong the tobacco control act is. Why did we have to put a monk into prison, to start stopping something terrible. Why didn’t people say something when this act was

A Magazine

2011-01-04T01:01:00.000+06:00

I have been hopeless this year with my blog. This is not a New Year resolution, but I am going to write more often from now on. The reason I wasn’t writing was because this year I was mostly not working and I didn’t really have anything to write about. But now I have been doing something (which is what today’s post is all about) and I find myself once again with a lot of things to say. So I

Young Zoom on garbage

2010-08-27T00:13:00.000+06:00

<> </> <> </>Huge Raindrops :) <> </>hand holding globe- made of empty cigarette packets, Bmobile vouchers (green) and mineral water labels (blue) I am no longer a newspaper reporter and although I miss it all a lot, I enjoyed not having to write, but simply enjoying an event today- because today VAST held a festival at the clock tower square dedicated to garbage. The 'Young Zoom on

On car Taxes

2010-08-11T22:01:00.000+06:00

Increasing taxes and the whole ‘equality’ motto of DPT depresses me. It makes me that that the party leans towards socialism, an opinion further justified by the fact that this government is quickly increasing taxes. The thing about socialism is that it may sound nice to a lot of people in theory, but it always goes wrong. Equality sound good to you? Well, there are two ways to achieve

Back on the job

2010-07-22T12:03:00.001+06:00

Its been a while since I last opened this blog, and I see that I have gained a few followers, without having written a word for the last couple of months. I was keeping away because I didn't have much to say, but now I do, so here's a return! As most of you may know this already, I joined Kuensel and worked there for a couple of months. It was a very enjoyable experience, and although the work

Teacher 'CUM' Barber

2010-04-01T10:52:00.000+06:00

A friend of mine told me recently that her younger sister, who is studying in one of the private high schools in Thimphu, came home one day with her hair chopped off, almost in tears. Apparently, this was some teacher making good his promise that if "by tomorrow all the girls do not cut their hair, please remember that I am not a good barber". So it seems a lot of girls in that school that

monthly update?

2010-03-31T10:19:00.000+06:00

A month since I quit, and I am, as one of my possible predictions in the last blog was, Jobless and at home. Adding to the many unemployed youth in Bhutan, I suppose. Well actually I have many plans, and am, at the moment, just waiting and watching. Which sounds a lot like the things movie stars say when asked about their next project when they are actually jobless. Ah, maybe its the many hours

Moving On

2010-02-17T14:15:00.000+06:00

I quit my job. I don't know if that’s an applicable post for 'On the job'.....but I guess I am the one making the rules here, so I decided to put this up. I had a great time working as a reporter, and I would love to keep doing it for a bit, so I don't know what I will do next, and what happens to this blog which I had intended, after all, to talk about things I came across while on the job,

Two Things

2010-02-04T18:05:00.002+06:00

I remember saying in this blog previously that I do not appreciate anonymity, and it seems I have more reasons of late to do so, because of all the very senseless remarks, and acid judgements dished out by some in the name of anonymity. It is very easy for people to just bask in anonymity, and call people names, although if the readers just knew the name of the writer they would probably not pay

Distributing Blame?

2010-01-20T11:25:00.000+06:00

I was watching on BBS TV a little girl make a speech at the end of the Police Youth Partnership Programme, and I was appalled at what she said. The students were taken to drayangs, and this is what she had to say about them: “All the body parts (of the women working there) were not properly covered, and maybe that is why we are having an increase in number of rape cases”. Not that I blame

DPT Times

2010-01-13T11:20:00.001+06:00

None of the newspapers found it appropriate to publish this, for obvious reasons, but I think it would be interesting for people to know anyway. Tenzin Rigden, the founder and Ex MD of Bhutan Times, and one of Bhutan's most prominent journalists, is now the media advisor for the government. For people in the media, I think this is good news. The media hasn't been all that sucessful in

Obscene scene?

2010-01-07T17:48:00.002+06:00

RSTA (Road Safety and Transport Authority) issues a notice saying that vehicles carrying obscene messages would be fined heavily / penalised. I was curious, what kind of messages? I have never obscene messages on vehicles...but what do I know? But again, one of our reporters was told that some examples were "Lady Killer" on a truck, and "Awaaz do" and "Come together and revolt". I havent seen

Failing democracy

2010-01-04T11:37:00.000+06:00

If Democracy means "Of the people, By the People, For the people," then Democracy in Bhutan must be failing. Policies that I and others have written about in various media which have neither popular support not benefit to the masses, show just how our government is walking a line that is divergent from what we understand to be democracy. Bad policies do not necessarily mean a failed democracy