Check out the tires on that bike
Check out the seat
Check out that smile!

Our hope

Youth crime is a growing problem in our kingdom. And according to the prime minister, “the answer lies in GNH.”

I’m happy that the prime minister has acknowledged the problem: that youth crime is real and that it is growing.

And I’m happy that he has an answer to that problem: GNH.

A good segment of our youth, especially those living in Thimphu, are in trouble. They are scared. They are anxious. And they are desperate.

So if GNH is the answer, let’s use it.

But if GNH isn’t the answer, let’s admit it, let’s look for solutions that could work, and let’s get cracking.

Reports of youth violence, vandalism, theft, drug abuse, rape, gang fights, prostitution, murder and suicides are on the increase. But what we know from the media may only be the tip of the iceberg. The reality, as Xochitl Rodriguez found out, could actually be worse.

Xochitl spent some time in Changjiji last year. And she blogged about what she saw – the suffering and desperation of our children. I’m reproducing her entire article here for our collective reference, and as a reminder of the magnitude and urgency of the work at hand.

“there are no children here”

I’ve spent these last few days in Changjiji. The Tarayana Foundation has kindly sponsored the “Tarayana Summer Camp for Leadership, Art and Hope” in Changjiji. It is Changjiji’s first out of school camp and it couldn’t come at a better time. Changjiji is suffering.

During our daily one hour sessions, each group of camp participants shares their stories with me. They are all between the ages of 12 and 19.

“Madame, I don’t like my father. He is drunk always…he beats and sleeps. I cannot stay there.”

“Madame, I have to fight. We all do. We get to show our fighting styles and show who is boss.”

“Madame, kids go to the bridge to date but they have more than one boyfriend. They are having affairs.”

“We make gang to protect ourselves. if someone comes we slice them”…when asked if they feel bad because other people are frightened, they respond, “no Madame, they can join and also be protected”…when I ask what they are protecting themselves from, the response is “it’s just like that.”

“My friend’s grab my arm and twist. It’s just like that, Madame”…this said with penetrating and somehow gentle intensity in her eyes.

“Yes madame! I went roaming up up up and thats where I had first N10 [a drug]. My head was like this after [moving his small fingers in circles with an innocent smile].”

“Drugs make everything fine. When parents beat or friends beat or parents divorce…its just like that.”

“If older boy says, I have to do, madame.”

“Too scared to walk at night alone, Madame. They will rag [steal] on me. If I don’t give they’ll beat and maybe stab.”

“Madame, you cannot call the police. They will not come and when they come it’s late. They are afraid of the bosses.”

“Madame! Last year I left home for six months tour of Bhutan, didn’t inform my parents. Went for tour of all Bhutan!” When asked if he saw everything he needed to see, his response was…”no Madame, I like to see other places. Much nicer than here and parents will only scold and beat for one day. I was gone six months.”

A 13 year old boy looks at me and says “Madame, I’ll tell you one story. A man didn’t give me 5 rupees for the bus to go to the emergency room. I got my friends and took 500 from him. I just reached like this into his box and took. This is for revenge. I have to show I’m boss.” When I explained that a simple act of unkindness or perhaps greed, or maybe flat out poverty led him to respond in a way that was at least 100 times worse than what this man did, the boy explains, “If I need he should give.”

This is compassion gone wrong. This is defense systems smashing crashing themselves into offense systems. This is unrest in the peaceful kingdom. This is suffering in the land of happiness. This is a generational gap taking its casualties. This is fear unbridled. This is confusion exploding and imploding. This is misguidance and misunderstanding. All of this is very sad.

I often ask myself, how did this happen? Is all this in us as humans? Is there no way to stop it because it is in fact our nature? Is it a fact of nature or is it the absence of proper nurturing? (Oh that age old debate between nature and nurture!)

These young humans are in no way weak. They are, indeed, very strong. Stronger than I can ever remember being when I was a girl. I could probably safely say they are also stronger than I can imagine being now as an older lady. 12 year old boys who know the names of every drug in Bhutan and just how to use it, those same boys filled with fear to walk alone at night because they may wind up in the violent arms of an older boy. 13 year old girls whose friends have multiple sex partners. It is normal for them to see fights. It is normal for them to feel afraid. And still, they smile.

I know a few neighborhoods back home that have hints and pieces of such problems. and of course, there are certain large cities in the U.S. a lady like myself would not even dare driving through, much less walk. However, in Bhutan?

How did this happen in Bhutan?

Parents are not debilitated with fear, parents are not being stabbed by gang members, parents do not even like to admit their children are going through these things, much less taking part in such things. So this only makes me ask again, in a country where its youth are the priority how did this happen in Bhutan?

Amidst an infinite and very complex web of causes and effects I manage to pull something from the sticky strings. That is, the idea of little humans growing up to be products of their environment.

Now, when I observe and question whether these little humans are a product of their environment I cannot ignore the voice in my head telling me this is one of the reasons for the problem. It is never completely a child’s fault when they wind up behaving badly. There are so many factors that contribute to the LOSS OF VALUES that has led them to behave badly. This only leads me to ask how BHUTAN is home to such an environment. It’s important to keep in mind that when I use the word ‘environment’ I am referring to an untouchable thing. I am referring to the workings of a machine that is, obviously, beyond control. I am referring to images and ideas about a world that is only seen on a screen. I am referring to mothers and fathers who are products of their own environments and are perpetuating this new environment. I am referring to the real and honest concern and attention that is missing in the broader realm of what these children are exposed to.

In a land where prayer flags flap in the wind everywhere, where mountains foster peace on their peaks…in a land where spiritual connections are living, breathing, walking beings…where the King plays soccer barefoot with boys from rural villages…how did this happen in a land like this? Has this happened because this new environment (the outside one) came too fast? Has this happened because the two environments that merged together didn’t actually merge…they CRASHED. Though this country’s development model in its great wisdom is designed to avoid the mistakes other developing and developed countries have made, something isn’t working. Perhaps, it’s better to say something malfunctioned. Perhaps I am too close to the matter. Perhaps, the tremendous love I have for this country has made me worry too much. Be it as it may, these problems that might seem normal in other places, are especially heartbreaking to find here. Of course, I’ve always been a bit too sensitive and perhaps I’m speaking too soon.
Perhaps. But then again, Bhutan is small. There are stabbings nearly every week. Children are ‘roaming’ and hiding in friends’ houses instead of going home. 12 year old girls speak of their promiscuous friends. At least half a city is abusing or has abused substances by the age of 15 (please do forgive me if this is inaccurate, but the children and I made an educated guess). Alcoholism is present in adults and youth.

Something has malfunctioned.

I could not say what it is that has malfunctioned. I even hesitate to write these things about Bhutan because I am not from this beautiful place and no given number of hours spent with youth could ever allow me to fully understand the scope of this situation. However, I have to share what I have seen and what the youth I have worked with have shared with me. I’ve always been one for honesty. The children deserve honesty. They deserve honesty because if that’s absent, things will never be better for them.

Now, it must be made clear that Bhutan’s most precarious youth situation lives in Changjiji. It is for that reason that this summer camp was organized there. Sonam Pelden is a counselor at Loselling Middle Secondary School and was instrumental in designing this camp. In her mighty wisdom and because of her admirable concern and dedication, she decided that something had to be done for these youngsters during their summer break. The situation is such that it is, in fact, possible that occupying their idle time like this, could avoid one more fight in Changjiji…could avoid one more stabbing in Changjiji…could avoid one more youngster starting a drug habit. Originally, the participants in the summer camp included 40 students who were nominated by the two school counselors from Loselling Middle Secondary School. These forty children were selected because they were more ‘at risk’ than the rest of the students. They are believed to be the MOST ‘at risk’ in-school youngsters in Changjiji. Unfortunately, most of these youngsters didn’t turn up. 67 other youngsters, however, did turn up!! Of course, this has made the camp a bit more challenging for the volunteers who are guiding the workshops, but we probably all agree, we couldn’t be more excited!

A young girl asked me today, “Madame, why do you like Bhutan?” I thought for a moment and replied “Bhutan gives me hope.”

She smiled and continued questioning me curiously, “But why Madame? You are from America. That’s the best place!” I answered, “Oh my dear, America has many many problems…we’ve just practiced hiding them for a long time. In Bhutan, there are no secrets. If I keep my eyes open I see so many things here. My country will never fix things because we are not always honest. People would rather close their eyes. In Bhutan, everything is very honest [whether purposely or accidently]…so there’s hope to fix it because it cannot be hidden.”

She smiled and I only hope she understood. At the very least, I know she was proud to be part of hope.

Thinking back to the things these youngsters have said to me in the last few days, I can only imagine what the selected students might have to say. My heart tightens when I think of what they might have said. My heart tightens when I wonder what they might be doing instead of attending the summer camp.

It’s unfortunate that they aren’t part of the beautiful things that have been happened in the last four days. To effectively and thoroughly understand the stories we’re trying to tell in our ‘forum-theater’ based performances the little humans and I have been systematically breaking down issues of substance abuse, violence, “affairs”, crime, and sanitation. All of these issues are boiling over in Changjiji.

Our analysis method is simple. We start with one sentence that identifies the problem. 1) “Substance abuse is an increasing problem among youth in Changjiji.” 2) “Changjiji is no longer safe due to an increase in violent incidents.” 3) “Youth in Changjiji are increasingly having intimate affairs with multiple partners.” 4) “Crime and fear are growing together making Changjiji a dangerous place to live.” 5) “Poor sanitation is leading to low health standards and living standards in Changjiji.”

After identifying the problem in one sentence, we identify the causes and effects of the problem together. I ask the youngsters questions and they also ask me questions. At this point, the chalkboard goes white with scribbled thoughts. Arrows shoot from one side of the board to the other showing us how EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and problems NEVER simply exist. They are always a product of many tiny details compounded together.

After breaking down the drug problem, one youngster pointed at the right side of the board and moved his hand to the left. He said “Madame, if the government stopped drugs in Phuentsholing [Bhutan's biggest border city and the port through which nearly all goods enter Bhutan] they would never reach Thimphu. There would be no drugs?”

I smile. This camp is indeed a “Camp for Leadership, Art and Hope.”

The youngsters are full of wisdom and insight. They know what is happening they just don’t always understand it. They FEEL the effects of what could (most) simply be described as “tick tock KABOOM” they just don’t always understand how to make those effects postivie…because they’re only children.

The last two days of the workshop ended with 72 children singing “Blowing in the Wind” (a song by the American musician Bob Dylan) in unison. The group, made up of gang members, drug users, victims of domestic violence and more fortunate and innocent youth, sang louder as the chorus came. “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind…the answer is blowing in the wind.”

I explained before we started learning “Blowin’ in the Wind” that Bob Dylan changed the world of music. He sang songs of beauty to respond to an ugly war-one of the most violent and unnecessary war’s the U.S. has ever been a part of. Rather than responding with anger and violence he sang beauty and the world heard him. I explained that when Dylan was interviewed about his music, reporters would ask, “Are you writing protest songs? Are you writing songs about the war?” and Dylan’s response was always, “Na man…I just write about what I see.”

I explained that Dylan simply told the truth. As his eyes saw it he sang it. He simply sang reality. The youngsters looked at me and nodded that hard and certain nod they rarely use.

As I looked at their faces it rang in my ears…the title of a book by Alex Kotlowitz I read long ago: “There Are No Children Here.”

But there are children here.

They are children.

THEY ARE ALL CHILDREN

Our youth can

The Eighth Asian Youth Congress concluded in Thimphu last Thursday. The congress, made up of youth leaders from the Asia and Pacific regions, aims to build a global network to fight drug abuse.

About 130 youth participants from 14 countries attended this year’s congress. 100 of them were from Bhutan.

At the end of the 4-day congress, two participants were jointly awarded the International Youth Award. The winners were Azmeel Mohamed from the Maldives; and our own Yangchen Dolkar.

Yangchen is a student at Dr Tobgyel School and, at 14 years, was one of the youngest participants. Still, the congress, which included several international university students, decided that the feisty Yangchen Dolkar showed enough communication, decision-making and leadership skills to merit winning the gathering’s highest honour. Well done.

But it was not just Yangchen Dolkar who did well at the congress. All our youth reportedly performed well, and impressed their international fellow-participants with their warmth and friendliness, and their readiness to participate in all the activities. In fact, that’s why the first runner also went to a Bhutanese – Jigme Choeda of Gedu HSS. Good job.

This year’s theme was “Together we can!” So I asked Yangchen Dolkar, who happens to be my niece, “Are you sure you can?”

“Yes we can!” came her immediate answer, “… together we can make this world a better place.”

Today, from Bhutan Today:

Most of us know about the recent tragedy in Nepal. And some of us have heard heart-wrenching stories about the victims and their families.

But what about the rest? What about the other 14 who were cremated today? Most of them were old. And some of them had been quite ill. One of them, however, was young, and he’d been healthy.

Tashi Penjore, 14 years old, committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree. He killed himself because he had failed his exams. He was in Class 7.

Bhutanese Blogger

“Bhutanese Blogger” left a comment on “Leadership of the Self”, a post targeted at this year’s graduates.  In his comment (don’t ask how I know his gender) – which happens to be a letter he’d posted on his blog last year – he talks about career choices, the need to develop a strong resume, the importance of cultivating useful networks, entrepreneurship and further studies.

These are, indeed, some important issues that our graduates should ponder. So I’m reproducing his comment here to allow graduates to access it easily.

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This was written in 2009. Some figures have changed since then.

Dear Graduates

An unemployment level of 4%, prospects of a smaller civil service and the layoffs in the private sector aren’t good news for you all. Our job market has become more challenging in recent times.

All of you sound incredibly talented and well grounded, and I am sure that your expectations are realistic. You don’t normally graduate again. So take some time to assess where you want to go on from here but be ready to be disappointed in your search.

For many reasons, everybody aspires to work in the civil service. Yes – it provides wide ranging opportunities – from attending to the public to working on a national policy – but you can also become a clone (a typical civil servant who is satisfied with life). So be sure that you have good networking skills – they are useful at all stages and places. You should also have a huge supply of tolerance and patience to see you through long meetings, demanding bosses and people who complain how inefficient civil servants are. If you have good ideas – better. If you don’t have any – be open and willing to explore. Work hard, voice your thoughts and take initiatives (although these may not be demanded of you). Avoid the temptation of being a ‘YES’ man and develop a reputation for delivering results.

But if you are entrepreneurial and enjoy working really hard, consider working for a private company or starting something new. All you need is a good idea and a lot of passion. You will develop commercial skills that will place you well to take advantage of our economy which is being liberalised. And Bhutan needs more entrepreneurs. With our Government committed to developing the sector, the opportunities will only increase.

Another option is to go for higher studies but personally, I think, a few years of working experience makes pursuing a post-graduate degree more enriching. And you could still be looking for work after three years.

But if you aren’t interested in any of these, there is yet another career path you could choose -

You have a degree and qualify to to represent your people in the national assembly. Network and develop your political capital. Go home and establish your credentials. I hear that being an MP isn’t a difficult job. My convictions come from desiring to see or hear of something substantial done by the MPs. I could be wrong. But you have a good opportunity to prove that MPs need more talents than just the ability to be either garrulous in their arguments or subservient in their conduct.

Finally as you start looking for jobs, enhance your CV either by volunteering your time or learning something new. Now is the time to meet people, question and learn as much as you can. As you mature – you are expected to know something and lose that liberty to ask questions.

And maintain lots of positivity and modest levels of overconfidence (overconfidence does help).

All the best.

Great expectations

The results of the Labour Force Survey, 2009 has me worried: unemployment has jumped to 4%; and more than 80% of them are youth between the ages of 15 and 25. In absolute terms, 13,000 of the 325,700 economically active people are unemployed. And of them, 10,500 are youth. Youth between the ages of 15 and 19 are hit the hardest – 20.1% of them are unemployed.

So last week’s job fair was a good idea. It sought to boost employment by bringing employers and jobseekers together.

But, our labour minister’s statement at the job fair has me even more worried: He was quoted as saying that unemployment is not a real problem in Bhutan, rather it is the mismatch of available jobs and aspirations of the jobseekers.

I’d like to remind our labour minister that, mismatch or not, unemployment is already a real problem for many of our youth. Unemployment must be real problem if young men and women trek to the labour ministry everyday in search of jobs, and mostly return home disappointed. Unemployment must be a real problem if qualified engineers can’t find work. Unemployment must be a real problem if we expect our graduates to work abroad. And, unemployment must be a real problem if the very job fair that the labour minister addressed had about 9,000 jobseekers but only 287 jobs on offer.

Our government’s promise to reduce unemployment to 2.5% by 2013 is commendable. And it can be done. But not if we don’t accept that we already have a problem – a problem that is growing rapidly by the day.

The future

I’m still reeling from the announcement in the Annual Health Bulletin that 37% of our children are stunting, that 4.6% of them are wasting, and that 11.1% are underweight. That means that 52.7% of our children are under nourished. In other words, more than half our children do not have enough to eat.

Wasting, also called acute malnutrition, causes body fat and tissue to “waste” away, or to degenerate. And it is generally caused by extreme hunger, i.e., famine. So, even as I write this entry, one in every twenty children may be coping with famine.

Stunting or chronic malnutrition is caused by nutritional deficiencies over a long period of time. The bodies, organs and brains of children affected by stunting do not, and will never, develop fully. The effects of stunting are permanent, and many of those afflicted with it will die early. 37% of our children are stunting. That is, more than one in every three children is stunting.

We may lecture about GNH. And our HDI ranking may be improving. But the reality is that poverty is rife and that most of our children are hungry. The reality is that more than one third of our children have already been permanently robbed of their full potential. The reality is that, at this rate, we risk losing a whole generation of Bhutanese.  Left unchecked, the future of Bhutan cannot be bright.

Our government should be alarmed.

First, I would have talked about employment. Then I would have talked about the role of the opposition.

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Be somebody! Sound familiar?

Be somebody! Remember this hand signal? Clenched fist, thumb upright?

Yes, of course you do. It’s from the career counseling tour in 2002, seven years ago. Yes, seven years ago – I can’t believe that that’s how long it’s already been – when Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup visited every high school in the country to talk to our students about what they wanted to do in life. I was a part of the multi-sectoral task force that accompanied Lyonpo Sangay in 2002.

You were in school that year, all of you. Most of you would have been in class 8 or 9. So you probably would have attended the career counseling workshop. Chances are you don’t remember my presentation. But then again, chances are you may remember something I said. And what did I say? Be somebody!

Now you’ve graduated – one thousand, two hundred and sixty four of you. You have graduated with degrees in business, commerce, IT, management, science, engineering, medicine, philosophy, architecture, and a range of specializations in the arts. Well done. Congratulations!

It hasn’t been easy, I know. I’ve met some of you. And you’ve told me so. You’ve had to work hard and study long hours. And most of you have had to struggle in foreign lands – in India and beyond. Some of you have had to borrow money to finance your studies.

But you graduated. And now you are ready to serve your king, your country and your people. You are ready to be somebody!

During the orientation programme, a lot of people have talked to you about employment, and described the many job opportunities that you have. They are right. You see, our country has barely six hundred thousand people. That’s not enough people. In fact, one of the biggest challenges we continue to face is a shortage of workers in almost every field. We simply don’t have enough people to grow our own food, build our homes, teach our children, care for our sick, do business, and to protect our country.

Yes, there’s a lot of work to do. And that’s why I’m particularly happy to see that we have so many young graduates this year. You represent the new Bhutanese workforce – a workforce that is knowledgeable; a workforce that is productive; a workforce that will unleash the true potential of Bhutan.

But many people have also cautioned you about unemployment. This is unfortunate. Like I said, we have too few people. So we really shouldn’t have any unemployment. Yet, there is. And, as a matter of fact, it is growing.

Why is this happening? Mainly because of two inter-related reasons: one, we do not accept the jobs that exist; and two, our economy is weak. Put another way: Our economy is weak, so it generates only a few jobs. But when even these jobs remain vacant, our economy becomes weaker. And a weaker economy offers even less jobs. It’s a vicious cycle, one that we can reverse, one that we must reverse.

To reverse this trend, we must strengthen our economy. We have no other alternative. And that responsibility falls primarily on our government. But we have important roles too. As opposition leader, for instance, I must work with the government to support real and sustainable growth in our economy. This, I will pledge do.

And you, as graduates, can help strengthen the economy – can be part of the solution – by taking employment very seriously. Look for jobs, not just in the civil service, but especially in the private sector. Work hard. And make sure that you are productive. Make sure that you contribute to building our economy.

Seven years ago, during the career counseling tour, I asked you what “Be somebody!” meant to you. This is how most of you replied: a “somebody” is a person who is useful to self, to family and to country; a “somebody” is a person who is gainfully employed.

Be somebody!

Well oriented

About 1,300 graduates are currently attending this year’s National Graduate Orientation Programme. And, like last year, the opposition party has not been included in the programme.

So today, when I heard that the graduates were hosting a cultural show for the public, I rushed to the Nazhoen Pelri. I’m glad I went. Our graduates are obviously talented. And they put on quite a show. From boedra and rigsar to Bhutanese rock and hip hop, the graduates entertained us with a range of performances. Not bad, considering that they’ve been together for barely ten days.

The chief counselor, Namgyal Dorji, told me that the proceeds from the cultural show will go to a charity. Good job.

Congratulations to all graduates for a wonderful performance. This week’s banner, a photo from the cultural show, celebrates the 2009 graduates.

Youngten Lempen Tharchen, an NGOP participant and a temporary reporter at Bhutan Today, has been writing about this year’s graduate orientation on his blog.