Our drinking problem

Posted inHealth17 Comments
We have a drinking problem. We reportedly consume 7.5 liters of alcohol per person per year. Much of that is served in the more than 3,000 licensed bars that we have. That works out to one bar for every 250 people. And that does not take into consideration the large-scale production, sale and consumption of home brewed alcohol throughout our country. That’s why alcohol abuse is a leading cause of non-communicable diseases. That’s why alcohol-related diseases make up a whopping 27% of all hospital inpatients. That’s why they account for a staggering 58% of all inpatient mortality. That's why…

Deserving parents

Posted inSports14 Comments
Dago Pema Retty deserves to be congratulated. Dago, who is a Class VII student at Pelkhil School, recently participated in the 9th International Clubs Open Taekwondo Championship in Vietnam. He bought home a bronze medal from that tournament. Dago’s parents, Aum Pem Dem and Gyambo Sithey, also deserve to be congratulated. They spotted their son’s interest in taekwondo, and went out of their way to cultivate that interest. They hired a private coach for their son. And even though Dago was the only Bhutanese participant in the Vietnam tournament, they sent him there, and they bore all the expenses.…

Crazy bear?

Posted inNature9 Comments
A bear recently wrecked havoc in the meditation centre in Tango. Thankfully, it did not attack any of the monks. But others have not been as lucky. Earlier this month, a bear mauled and killed a man in Dawakha. A little upstream, in Jabana, a farmer managed a narrow escape after stabbing a bear two times. Further upstream, in Shari (Haa), a man was severely mauled by a bear. And on the other side of the Wangchu, in Chapcha, another man was seriously mauled by a bear. Be careful when you venture into the forests. Never go alone. And…

Thimphu’s lifestyle

Posted inHealth2 Comments
In 2007 the Ministry of Health conducted a survey in Thimphu to assess the state of non-communicable diseases in the capital. The results showed that we live dangerously. For example: One out of every five adults consumed tobacco – they either smoked or used smokeless tobacco. One third of the adult population consumed alcohol regularly. One third of them were associated with hazardous drinking and binging. Most adults did not exercise to meet minimum health requirement. More than three-fourths of adults did not get any exercise at all during their free time. Two thirds of the adult population did…

A role model

Posted inPeople9 Comments
Civic sense. Do we have it? Sangay Dorji is one person who does have good sense of civic responsibility. I chanced upon him fixing potholes on the road to Dechhenchholing. He collected soft rock, gravel and mud from a nearby landslide to fill the larger potholes. And within minutes, even before he was finished, vehicles started plying on the repaired side of the road. Sangay Dorji, who lives in Dechhenchholing, drives a taxi on the weekends. He decided that he didn’t need to keep driving on a certain rough patch when he spotted a small landslide above the road.…

Politics of LG elections

Posted inLocal Government7 Comments
The local government elections are over. And the new gups – the heads of local governments – have started taking their charge throughout the country. But a dozen gewogs still don’t have gups. Goenshari in Punakha yielded a two-way tie. The election results in Bjabcho in Chukha was nullified as the winning candidate turned out to be overaged. And elections for Gongdue in Mongar could not be conducted as the lone candidate was disqualified for violating electoral laws. So elections for Goenshari’s two candidates will be repeated. And elections will be conducted in Bjabcho and Gondue. The remaining 9…

CDG giveaway

Posted inLocal Government13 Comments
During a recent meeting with gups, the PM reminded the local government leaders that, “The constituency development grant of Nu 2M … was not fully used in most gewogs”. And he advised them to put the CDG “… to use to benefit the poor and contribute towards alleviating poverty.” The PM makes it sound like local governments have full authority over CDG. They don’t. Firstly, local governments cannot decide how to use the CDG. They can only submit project proposals. The proposals must ultimately be approved by their MPs. And the ministry of finance can release CDG funds to…

An inconvenient truth

Posted inHealth39 Comments
Last week, on the 8th of July, Bhutan Today reported that the Phuentsholing hospital received four post abortion complication cases in just one month. All the abortions had been performed across the border, in Jaigon. All four cases were life-threatening. This week, on the 14th of July, Kuensel reported that a young woman died in Phuentsholing hospital from post abortion complications. The abortion had been performed on the 11th of July, in Jaigon, just three days after the Bhutan Today article. Many of our women have lost their lives attempting abortions. Many, many more have suffered life-threatening complications caused…

Powerful tendency

Posted inMiscellaneous4 Comments
In their editorial last Sunday, The Journalist warned us that “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. Their editorial, and the quote about how power can corrupt, reminded me about a conversation I had with a friend of Bhutan several years ago. This is how she explained the context of the quote by Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, an English historian and the First Baron of Acton (1834-1902): In 1870, the Catholic Church entered a crisis over Vatican's promulgation of the dogma of "papal infallibility" -- the dogma in Catholic theology that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the…

Democracy in Bhutan

Posted inDemocracy5 Comments
Uncontested elections are generally walkovers for the lone candidates. That’s why they’re called “uncontested” elections. Since uncontested elections have only one contesting candidate, that candidate is automatically declared the winner. But not in Bhutan. Our electoral laws allow voters to cast their ballots even if there’s only one candidate is running. According to Sections 575 and 576 of the Election Act: 575.     A poll at any election to Parliament or a Local Government shall be taken in the constituency concerned even if there is only one contesting candidate or political party. 576.     The candidate shall, for the purposes of…

Monkey business

Posted inPolitical parties31 Comments
Last Sunday’s cover page of The Journalist features a troup of loud monkeys goading a horse and a couple of cranes to continue pushing for state funding. The dejected animals encircled by the rascals appear to complain: “…. And No Matter What We Do Or How We Spin It, They Are Still Gonna See State Funding As Monkey Business” The Journalist is right: no matter how you look at it, state funding for political parties is indeed monkey business. But The Journalist is also wrong: the horse wants no part of the monkey business, so it should not be…

Open invitation by Haa

Posted inLocal Government2 Comments
Have you been to Haa? Chances are you haven’t. You haven’t been to Haa, because you probably didn’t have any work there – you didn’t have the reason to go. And you probably haven’t been there, because, like most people, you think that the journey from Thimphu to Haa is long and arduous. But there’s good news. If you haven’t been to Haa, you now have good reason to go there. This weekend – that’s on the 9th and 10th of July – Haa Dzongkhag, along with the Tourism Council of Bhutan, are organizing the Haa Summer Festival to…

More local government

Posted inLocal Government3 Comments
The elections for local government are over. So soon, and for the first time, we will have local governments – thromde tshogdes, gewog tshogdes and dzongkhag tshogdus – elected and empowered by the Constitution according to which: Power and authority shall be decentralized and devolved to elected Local Governments to facilitate the direct participation of the people in the development and management of their own social, economic and environmental well-being. The local governments that were recently elected will serve for five years. But the first elected parliament and the current government have less than two years left in office.…

All is not well

Posted inGovernment5 Comments
The government’s final accounts for 2009-10 show that 22% of the approved budget was unutilized. Of that about 7% was for current expenditure. And a whopping 33% was money budgeted for capital expenditure. But it’s not just last year, accounts for 2008-09 show that the government did not utilize 35% of the capital budget. The government has a range of excuses for the huge deviation between funds budgeted and funds utilized. They point out that it is not always possible to predict when donor funds that have been committed are actually made available. They complain about the continued shortage…

Falling unemployment numbers

Posted inEmployment15 Comments
Between 2009 and 2010, unemployment in our country fell drastically, and impressively, from 4% to 3.3%. At least, that’s what the government has claimed. But some experts have questioned the low unemployment numbers. So I requested the labour minister for disaggregated data for 2009 and 2010 to study the reductions in unemployment rates. Two bits of interesting figures jumped out at me, as soon as I glanced at the data. The first was that between 2009 and 2010 unemployment for the age group 15 to 19 years fell 13.6 percentage points. Unemployment for this age group in 2009 was…