Bringing GNH home...

Happiness for some

GNH is synonymous with Bhutan. So it’s important for us to participate in and contribute to the growing international knowledge base on GNH. Still, I was a little concerned when, recently, our prime minister personally led a 24-member delegation to a GNH conference in Brazil. After all, it had been barely 10 weeks since he had visited Japan to tell them about GNH.

Like some, I felt that the PM should have been in attendance when the nation’s highest legislative body was in session. Like others, I believed that he should have stayed behind to help victims of the recent calamities rebuild their lives. And, like a few others, I felt that while hitting the lecture circuit may be important, especially when GNH is in the spotlight, our head of government would find ample time and opportunity to do after he leaves office.

As it turns out, it was a good thing that our prime minister attended the Brazil conference! The visit, it appears, taught him one important lesson: that GNH is not exactly thriving in its birthplace. Yesterday, upon his arrival back home, he told the media that Bhutan was “falling behind” in the implementation of GNH. Today, he reported to the National Assembly that in parts of Brazil he saw GNH at work – individuals, NGOs, universities, private businesses, and local governments, we were told, had all made it their business to promote gross national happiness. And, he excitedly told lawmakers of immediate plans to operationalise GNH.

Very good. Our government now understands what the common man has long known: namely that, to increase happiness levels, we need is less talk and more action.

Talk about happiness, however convincing, will not make emerging problems like poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, income disparity, crime, corruption, drug abuse, domestic violence, child labour, and garbage go away. Only hard work will do so.

Otherwise, Bhutan and GNH may quickly become a contradiction in terms.

Photo credit: Kuensel

On the warpath...

Six weeks ago, the Annual Health Bulletin announced that 37% of our children are stunting, that 4.6% of them are wasting, and that 11.1% are underweight.

This week, we learnt that the Right to Food Assessment Study concluded that 26.6% of our households are undernourished. That would also roughly mean that about a quarter of our population is undernourished. The study, it seems, was conducted sometime last year by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture.

And recently, the Basic Health Worker in Chali has reported that “the number of malnourished children under the age of five in Chali geog under Mongar has almost doubled in just one year.”

We now know, from independent sources, that our people are undernourished. And that our children are stunting, wasting and underweight. So what are we doing about it? Not much. In fact, we seem to be doing nothing to specifically address this crisis.

What should we do? “Wage a WAR AGAINST MALNUTRITION,” cries Zekom. This is what Zekom implores:

Reducing poverty, especially rural poverty, is an obvious answer.

But, children cannot wait for Drukyul to get richer. Our nation’s future is being made NOW.

Wage a WAR AGAINST MALNUTRITION. Take the nourishing food to where the children and infants are — in schools and beyond schools — targeting the nutrition and trace elements missing in their diet.

Make sure to measure outcomes, in physical growth rates of beneficiary children, very frequently. You’ll be amazed how fast it works, if it’s done right. There’s nothing better than rapid positive results to fuel the FIRE in change agents’ belly, and inspire others to join hands.

Countries such as UK, Germany and Japan benefited from such programmes after the World War II. Concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil were delivered to every household with children under certain age in UK. Milk and various sources of vitamins were delivered to every infant and school lunches in Japan. Who financed these? USA. It was the top priority in their postwar reconstruction assistance efforts.

Recruit UNiCEF, UN World Food Programme, and other UN agencies as partners, and tap their global know-how on how to do it and do it right.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Listen to the screaming...

Today, 25 November, is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Listen to Tracy Chapman’s “Behind the Wall”, one of my early favourites.

Last night I heard the screaming
Loud voices behind the wall
Another sleepless night for me
It won’t do no good to call
The police always come late
If they come at all

Last night I heard the screaming
Loud voices behind the wall
Another sleepless night for me
It won’t do no good to call
The police always come late
If they come at all

And when they arrive
They say they can’t interfere
With domestic affairs
Between a man and his wife
And as they walk out the door
The tears well up in her eyes

Last night I heard the screaming
Then a silence that chilled my soul
Prayed that I was dreaming
When I saw the ambulance in the road

And the policeman said
“I’m here to keep the peace.
Will the crowd disperse?
I think we all could use some sleep.”

Last night I heard the screaming
Loud voices behind the wall
Another sleepless night for me
It won’t do no good to call
The police
Always come late
If they come at all

Talk about towns...

Thimphu Thromde

Yesterday, the government proposed a motion in the National Assembly to endorse a list of thromdes (urban settlements). Thromdes, along with gewogs and dzongkhags, form our local governments. But the Local Government Bill, which describes different types of thromdes, has not yet fully completed its passage in Parliament as required by Article 13 of the constitution.

The bill was endorsed during a special joint sitting of the Parliament two months ago, and was submitted to His Majesty the King for His Assent. Till Royal Assent is granted, the LG Bill will remain just that – a bill. And that Assent is not automatic. Article 13 Section 10 of the Constitution states that: “Where the Druk Gyalpo does not grant Assent to the Bill, He shall return the Bill with amendments or objections to deliberate and vote on the Bill I a joint sitting.”

So a few of us suggested that it may not be correct to discuss the proposed list of thromdes until the LG Bill has been fully enacted. That could amount to taking His Majesty’s Assent for granted.

But the government’s proposed list of thromdes has other problems as well. First and foremost, the Dzongkhag thromdes are categorized as Class A or Class B. According to the LG Bill Cass A thromdes will each have a thromde tshogde (a town committee), which will comprise of elected representatives including an elected Thrompon. And, Class B thromdes will not have tshogdes. This distinction between the Dzongkhag thromdes may, in effect, violate the Constitution, which requires that “A Dzongkhag Thromde shall be divided into constituencies for the election of the members of the Thromde Tshogde”, and that “A Thromde Tshogde shall be heaTalk ded by a Thrompon, who is directly elected by the voters of the Dzongkhag Thromde”.

Many MPs have argued that most Dzongkhag thromdes (Gasa has been repeatedly used as an example) are too small to currently warrant a tshogde, and that such thromdes will be upgraded to Class A thromdes as and when the population in these thromdes increase to acceptable levels. I see it quite differently: give tshodges to the smaller Dzongkhag thromdes, and you empower them to attract businesses and people to their respective constituencies. Otherwise, the smaller Dzongkhag thromdes will never grow to levels that will allow them to be categorized as Class A.

The proposed list of Yenlag thromdes (satellite townships) also was not complete. Only eight thromdes were proposed in this category, and a few belonged to one dzongkhag. The Constitution, however, implies that each Dzongkhag will have at least one Yenlag Thromde.

In the end, the National Assembly resolved not to discuss the list of thromdes till Royal Assent is granted for the Local Government Bill.

Retweeting...

I’ve added a new feature in the sidebar that allows readers to see my most recent entries on twitter. Though I’ve been tweeting for about six months, I haven’t been very regular. This feature will encourage me to post “microblogs” more often. I hope you’ll find it useful.

GAVI award...

“I think I know why babies today hardly cry,” my father remarked as he bounced his granddaughter on his knee, ten years ago. “They hardly fall ill – they are vaccinated!” Father was right.

And, GAVI, which recently honoured 15 low-income countries for excelling in child health and immunization, thinks so too. They recognized Bhutan for achieving the highest coverage of immunization.

That Bhutan has achieved 95% immunization coverage is commendable. After all, we are a poor country with a scattered population, much of which lives in remote, hard-to-reach areas.

Just consider the challenges involved in achieving such high immunization coverage. First, our governments have had to adopt policies that support immunization. Second, our governments have had to make funds available to implement immunization policies. Third, those funds have had to be used wisely to procure the right vaccines. And fourth, those vaccines have had to be actually administered to every child, throughout our country.

I congratulate our governments, present and past, for attaining near complete immunization coverage of our children. More importantly, I congratulate and thank our health workers for making sure that every child in every village, in every corner of our country, has been vaccinated.

Well done!

Royal decree...

I see two important points in His Majesty the King’s kasho instituting the Royal Commission and outlining the process to establish the first Supreme Court of Bhutan.

The first is that the delay in establishing the Supreme Court was deliberate. It was meant to make the “… new democratic institutions learn to work together in harmony, and with unity of purpose, in the interest of the Nation and People.”

The second is that, His Majesty the King has devolved his authority and created an even more transparent process of establishing the Supreme Court. Though Article 21, Section 4 of the Constitution authorizes the Druk Gyalpo to appoint the Chief Justice of Bhutan in consultation with the National Judicial Commission, His Majesty’s kasho empowers the Royal Commission to recommend “…one person to assume the post of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”

Hidden beauty...

Yesterday, on my way back from Haa, I stopped at Chelela (altitude about 3,900 meters) to see the sun set over our western mountain ranges. These mountains above the Haa valley offer some of the best, yet least known, treks in our country. They include a trek to the legendary lake Nub Tshonapatra, which I hope to revisit and write about in 2010.

UPDATE: Lampenda Chuup’s comment reminds me of the beauty that can be seen in and from those mountains. So I’ve changed the title from “Hidden treks” to the more appropriate “Hidden beauty”.

Biking in Bhutan...

Mountain bikers

I’ve recently started cycling again. So I was happy to bump into Kuenga Wangchuk, Pasang, Singye Tshering, Amier Mongar and Nima Palden. Kuenga is a bike technician with Yu Druk, a tour company that specializes in and promotes cycling in Bhutan. Pasang owns a tour company, Singye and Nima are guides, and Amier is a bar tender at Bhutan Suites.

The five friends bike together as often as possible, but at least every weekend. Most of their routes are around Thimphu. To Tango Monastery, for example. Or to Kuenselphodrang. And, sometimes, to Sangaygang from where there’s a lovely 5 km biking trail that runs through the beautiful forests and passes by Wangditse and Choekortse.

Yesterday, I met them in Shaba, as they cycled from Thimphu to Paro, where they would have lunch, before heading back to Thimphu.

They said that they might let me ride with them. So, I’m already looking forward to the coming weekends.

Helping hands...

Durung

.

.

.

9^th November, 2009: RBA soldiers dismantling a house that had been damaged by the earthquake in Durung, Trashigang.

.

.

Haa

.

.

.

22^nd November, 2009: RBA soldiers dismantling a house that had been damaged by the fire in Haa town.

.

.

From Trashigang in the east, to Haa in the west, the Royal Bhutan Army has played a crucial role in providing relief to the victims of disasters. They dismantled houses that were dangerously damaged by the calamities, they built temporary shelters, and, perhaps most importantly, they provided a sense of security.

Now they have started helping our farmers rebuild their homes.