Our garbage...

Residents in the capital will have welcomed the government’s announcement that “A massive clean-up campaign of the town and the river bank will begin shortly involving Thimphu’s residents” in preparation for the SAARC summit next month.
Thimphu will look presentable by this time next month. And our visitors will be duly impressed. But we, residents, must [...]

Demand for equity...

Consider this: in rural Bhutan, our people are undernourished, stunting and wasting.
Now consider this: in urban Bhutan, our people are overweight and obese.
Time to get serious about the equity in the DPT’s Equity and Justice.

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 [...]

Haa fire...

Fire-Haa-18-11-09

Another disaster has struck, this time in Haa. Earlier today, a fire raged through the upper market in Haa. Four houses were totally destroyed before the fire was bought under control. Residents suspect that the fire was caused by electrical problems.
By mid-afternoon, His Majesty the King was already in Haa.
Photo credit: BBS

Taxing cars...

Car park

So our government is thinking about increasing the taxes, duties and other fees levied on vehicles. I suppose that that, in some ways, is inevitable. The number of vehicles plying on our city roads has increased drastically. And it’s already difficult to find proper parking spaces. So, unless something serious is done about it, we [...]

Lost and (not) found...

Urbane horses

“Whoa…sho, sho, sho… Jamu-ya, sho, sho, sho! Whoa…sho, sho, sho…Tsheri-ya, sho, sho, sho,” Tshitem Dorji calls out shaking a feedbag of maize kernels. Jamu, an obedient mare, and Tsheri, a black mule, quickly respond to my cousin’s gentle entreaties. They emerge from the thick rhododendron forests to enjoy their morning meal before being saddled for [...]

Blooming nuisance...

Watch the hole

In my last entry, Blooming dogwood, Romeo, a regular commentator, pointed out an “…uncovered drain right next to the lower police gate that is very risky for pedestrians and vehicle drivers during the day as well as night.” Romeo is right. The open drain is dangerous.
I don’t know how long the drain has been left [...]

Risky business...

I was horrified to learn that an oil tanker burst into flames in the BOD’s petrol pump in Samdrup Jongkhar. (Read Bhutan Observer article) The fire was quickly contained, but only after two men had been seriously injured. We’re lucky that the fire didn’t spread to and cause unimaginable damage to the residents of Samdrup [...]

Addressing addresses...

I’m going to the wedding too, remarked my friend, can you tell me where it is?
I told him that the happy event was taking place opposite the RSPN’s old office, below the new Norling building in lower Changangkha.
My friend’s blank look promoted me to continue: at the Chubachu roundabout take the road to Motithang; [...]

Road to nowhere...

The double-lane road below Norzin Lam has recently attracted a lot of attention. Dorji Wangchuk, in his blog, complained that he was clueless about the purpose of the “middle road”. And Kuensel questioned government officials why the road was built in the first place.
The double-lane road was built to take away Norzin Lam’s vehicular traffic, [...]

Page 1 of 212