Kilu Music School

June 13, 2010Posted inEducation
Are you a parent in Thimphu? If so, have you grumbled that the city does not provide enough after-school activities, especially during the holiday season, for your children? I have. I’ve often wished that Thimphu provided better opportunities to learn about art, literature, culture, religion, music and sports.  But, I, like most parents, haven’t got round to organizing any constructive activity that would keep our children productively engaged during their free time. Not so, with the group of parents who, in 2005, decided to create opportunities for their children to learn music. And so they started Kilu Music School,…

BBS and the government

June 9, 2010Posted inMedia

Enough protection?

Last week, Parliament authorized the government to review the mandate of BBS. I’m against the government meddling in BBS’s affairs. But our lawmakers feel that the country’s only TV station is underperforming. And that the government should intervene to give BBS vision and the means to achieve that vision.
So what’s the first move that the government makes? It directs BBS to go 24/7. And it does so without consulting anyone in BBS. Our national broadcaster struggles to generate sufficient content for the five hours it goes on air each day, and the government, unilaterally, directs BBS to broadcast round the clock. This directive does not augur well for television in Bhutan.
BBS is essentially a non-commercial public service broadcaster. So the state should subsidize its operations. How much? That, the government should decide.
But the government should not interfere in how BBS is run. That is the job of the Managing Director and the Board of Directors – ultimately they are the ones responsible for ensuring that BBS is able to inform, educate and entertain our people, and for protecting its editorial independence.
And that, precisely, was the reason why BBS was delinked from the government in the first place. The Royal Kasho establishing BBS as an autonomous corporation was issued way back on 18 September 1992. But its message is timeless. In fact, it’s even more relevant today. So, to remind ourselves, I’m reproducing the translation of that Royal Kasho:

SMS tweets

June 7, 2010Posted inMedia
About a year ago, I’d announced that I was on Twitter, a social networking site that offers “micro-blogging” by allowing users to post updates that are less than 140 characters long. Twitter originally set a 140-character limit so that “tweets” would be compatible with the SMS messaging. I’d also described how the Twitter experience could be enhanced if our mobile cellular service providers would tie up with Twitter: If B-Mobile, say, were to allow Twitter to recognize their network, then users would be able to “tweet” using SMS’s, and “followers” would be able to receive updates as SMS’s. And…

Social forestry

June 3, 2010Posted inNature
Social Forestry Day is good time to reflect on the health of our forests, and to help nurture them by planting trees around our homes, schools, villages, towns, and in barren hillsides. So we – my family, that is – were happy that we had the opportunity to do something different yesterday: we saved a few trees! Yes, I’m being dramatic, I know. What we did do was uproot a few of the smaller trees (small plants actually, especially rhododendron) along the Taba - Langjophakha road and transplant them in front of our house.  The trees were destined to…

Unanimous support

June 2, 2010Posted inLegislature
Support for the Royal Monetary Authority Bill was unanimous. Every one of the 66 MPs present in the Parliament today endorsed the Bill. But if the Bill is so popular, why hadn’t the two Houses each passed it on its own? Why was a joint sitting needed? In fact, there were differences. And the most critical one concerned the chairperson of the RMA Board. The RMA Board comprises of seven members – the governor, two deputy governors, and four other members. The governor is appointed by His Majesty the King at the recommendation of the prime minister. The two…

Parliament passes Tobacco Control Bill

June 2, 2010Posted inLegislature21 Comments
Yesterday, as expected, the joint sitting of the Parliament passed the Tobacco Control Bill. Support for the Bill was almost unanimous. 61 of the 65 MPs present and voting endorsed the Bill, whereas only 4 of them rejected it. I was in the minority. Tobacco control is a good idea. But the Bill that we just passed is not. The main principle in the Bill does not make sense: that people are permitted to consume tobacco, but that the sale of tobacco products is illegal. And that the sale of tobacco is illegal, but that tobacco consumers are permitted…

Tobacco control

May 31, 2010Posted inLegislature
Today is world no tobacco day. And, not coincidentally, the Parliament, in a joint sitting, discussed the Tobacco Control Bill. The bill had already been debated in both the Houses last year – today’s discussions were to iron out the differences between the two Houses. Parliament will probably pass the Tobacco Control Bill tomorrow. And I am concerned. I’m concerned that we will pass a law that the government will not be able to enforce: a law that criminalizes the sale of cigarettes, but permits smoking, even in designated public spaces. The proposed law imposes hefty penalties on people…

Thanking His Majesty

May 28, 2010Posted inLegislature, Monarchy17 Comments
Earlier today, His Majesty the King was received in a traditional chipdrel procession to the inaugural ceremony of the fifth session of the Parliament. My statement, expressing the opposition party’s gratitude to His Majesty, is available here.

More than taekwondo

May 26, 2010Posted inEducation
Thimphu Club won the most medals in the recent under-15 tae­kwondo championships. Thimphu Primary School came in second. And Zilukha LSS third. 105 students from 9 clubs had participated in the championships that had been organized to commemorate Bhutan Taekwondo Federation’s silver jubilee. Not bad, I had initially thought, till I looked at the medal standings properly. Of the 9 clubs only two were from government schools. Five of them, on the other hand, were from private schools. The remaining two were not school based – one, the winner, is part of the Federation, and the other, White Tigers,…

Answering Sonam

May 24, 2010Posted inCulture, Democracy
Sonam’s question generated a good deal of discussions. And, most of you argued that we, elected officials – ministers and MPs alike – should not wear our kabneys and patangs after completing our terms in office. Similarly, almost all of you who took the poll that asked, “Should elected MPs and ministers continue to wear their "kabneys" after their terms in office?” voted against the idea. A resounding 220 of you said “NO”; only 18 said “YES”. I agree with the majority. But should we, in fact, take it still further? Should we do away with colour-coded kabneys and…

Sunday biking

May 23, 2010Posted inGeneral
Our Sunday bicycling group is slowly growing. Today, there were 12 of us. We met up at the Clock Tower Square, and rode together to Dechenphug monastery and back. Contact Rinzin Ongdra at [email protected] if you’d like to join the group. Or, just show up at the square at 10:30 AM on Sunday. To encourage you I’ve posted some pictures from today’s ride at the gallery.

TPS book week

May 22, 2010Posted inEducation
Mountain Echoes, a four-day literary festival in the capital, organized by the India-Bhutan Friendship Association, has concluded successfully. Coincidentally, Thimphu Primary School organized a lesser known, but no less important, literary festival of their own last week. Students pledged to stay away from television during all of “book week”, yielding, instead, to the delights of storybooks. They read books, wrote and told stories, designed book posters, donated books, bought books, and quizzed each other about books and authors. And yesterday, at the final day of the TPS book week, the students put on a costume parade for their parents…

Public business

May 20, 2010Posted inLegislature
Members of the National Assembly met last week to consider points submitted by the local governments and MNAs for inclusion in the Parliament’s 5th session. The so-called “pre-agenda” meeting is an important conduit for issues of national importance to receive the National Assembly’s attention. We must take the issues seriously as they are an important part of our responsibilities. Article 10.2 of the Constitution requires that: Parliament shall ensure that the Government safeguards the interests of the nation and fulfils the aspirations of the people through public review of policies and issues, Bills and other legislations, and scrutiny of…

Trial by secret jury

May 18, 2010Posted inMedia
The first annual journalism awards drew strong criticism from the media when a judge won the prize for the very category he was adjudicating. This time, during the second annual journalism awards, the government was careful not to repeat last year’s howler. And they managed. How? By concealing the identity of the jury. The public – and that includes the media – did not, and still does not, know who this year’s judges were. In fact, it appears that the judges themselves do not know who their fellow judges were! Being cautious is one thing. But being secretive is…

Summer residence

May 18, 2010Posted inReligion
His Holiness the Je Khenpo and the central monastic body took up their summer residence in Tashichhodzong last Saturday. This week's banner celebrates this centuries-old tradition. The gallery has a few more photos of the soelthap arriving at the Tashichhodzong.