Anonymous fear

April 12, 2010Posted inGovernment, Media
Of the many reasons we may have to comment anonymously, fear of government reprisal is the worst. Here’s how Kuensel introduced a contractor’s remarks recently: An owner of an established construction company, who requested anonymity, fearing possible backlash from the government, said that … The government must dispel such fears. The Constitution, after all, guarantees "...the right to freedom of speech, opinion and expression" as a fundamental right.

420 for McKinsey

April 9, 2010Posted inGovernment
Dasho Kinley Dorji to Kuensel, last week, defending the government’s decision to hire McKinsey: I was told that the total amount of money the government spends on consultants in a year is actually more than the amount made public. It’s about what you are getting for what you are paying. We need to define what is too expensive and too cheap. That we hire too many consultants is common knowledge. But that the government spends more for them than we are led believe is not. We should be very concerned if we suspect that the government is misleading the…

War against malnutrition

April 7, 2010Posted inHealth
Today is World Health Day. It is a good time to reflect on the health of our people. And to remind ourselves that we still need to wage a war against malnutrition. So I’m reproducing what we discussed last November on this serious problem: 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…

Talkin’ Takin

April 5, 2010Posted inNature
Takin, reindeer, yak calf, takin calf, sheep’s head, donkey, deer, drey daza, goat, sheep, lamb face, blue sheep, foal, cow calf, shaw, black foal, jatsham, mitun, thra –bum. The last Big Picture contest generated a rich variety of answers, including the right one, takin calf. “Karma S.” is our winner. The takin mother and calf was photographed in the Motithang Takin Preserve, a 20-acre sprawling blue-pine forest that was established in the early 1970’s to accommodate a pair of young takins that was gifted to Bhutan during the coronation of the Fourth Druk Gyalpo. The two takin thrived. And…

Potemkin village?

April 3, 2010Posted inGovernment
Lobxang’s comment on “Mining our business”: Pardon me, this is not related to mining but rather a bizarre topic. Is the Government panicking over the upcoming SAARC Summit in the Country? From what I read in Kuensel, the government is acting like they are having a cold feet already. First, tour operators were asked to vacate hotel rooms of their guests in Thimphu to Punakha and Paro. Now Kuensel reports that there is this strange rule of allowing traffic on alternating days depending on their odd or even license numbers. From my understanding, Bhutan had a very, very long…

Superman and the carpenter

April 3, 2010Posted inMonarchy
Business Bhutan carried an interesting story last week. It was about a young student’s fantastic encounter with His Majesty the King. Here’s another story… When Galek came home from school recently, she excitedly announced that she had met His Majesty the King. She explained that our monarch had visited Thimphu Primary School that day. And, she recounted every detail of the royal visit, from the stories that His Majesty had told them and the soelra that they had received, to the songs that they had sung and the flying kisses that they had exchanged. “Our King told us a…

Open Letter to Dasho Dzongdags

April 2, 2010Posted inLocal Government
Dear Dasho: I am writing about a matter of grave importance: the involvement of political parties in local governments. You will recall that, during your recent annual conference, the Prime Minister called for party workers to be involved in the development process at the local levels. And, that he requested for party workers to be invited to observe the sessions of the local governments. Article 22 of the Constitution clearly defines the powers, objectives, structure and functions of local governments. It also ensures that local governments remain nonpartisan. As such, political parties cannot be directly involved in the development…

Open Letter to Chairpersons

March 31, 2010Posted inLocal Government
Like last year, the opposition party was again left out of the annual conference for local government chairpersons. It was important to meet them. And it would have been useful. But I couldn’t. So I’m sending them an open letter expressing my concerns over the CDG and the inclusion of party workers in the local development process. Photo credit: Kuensel

Guru Thongdrel

March 31, 2010Posted inCulture
The Paro Tsechu ended yesterday, with the unfurling of the Guru Thongdrel. His Majesty the King graced the final day of the popular festival, as thousands of people braved the cold and rain to receive the sacred thongdrel’s blessings. Dasho Sangay Dorji, a leading dzongkha language expert, says that the gigantic tapestry was commissioned by the second Paro Penlop, Ngawang Choeda, and constructed by Lam Ngawang Rabgay more than 350 years ago. Parops love to tell stories about their thongdrel. According to one, Lam Ngawang Rabgay sent a trader to Tibet to barter rice for brocade. But the trader…

Mining our business

March 30, 2010Posted inEconomy, Government15 Comments
Most of the work at the Punatsangchu hydropower project, estimated to cost more than Nu 36 billion, is being contracted out to large Indian companies. And rightfully so. After all, we still don’t have enough in-house capacity to dig tunnels, erect dams and build powerhouses. But mining? For stone? Now that, I’m sure we can all agree, is something we are good at! Then why is the government allowing Indian companies – L&T, HCC and Gammon – to operate stone quarries for the Punatsangchu hydropower project? And how will L&T, HCC and Gammon operate their mines when the Mines…

Dangerous talk

March 26, 2010Posted inGovernment, Political parties
I smell danger. The prime minister is going all out campaigning for state funding for political parties. In January, the prime minister informed the business community in Phuensholing that both the political parties were facing severe financial difficulties. Referring to the Parliament’s decision not to provide state financing for political parties, the prime minister complained that: We asked for financial support but, there was so much criticism about it being unconstitutional, we withdrew the plea … whatever the government had done so far is in accordance with the Constitution. Shortly afterwards, in Gelephu, the prime minister told the community…

Praying for help

March 25, 2010Posted inReligion
Yesterday, at the opening ceremony of ECB’s annual conference, I sat near Lam Sangay Dawa and his student-monks from Semtokha shedra. They were there, beside the choesham, microphone in hand, ready to preside over the sacred marchang ceremony. The marchang, which was composed and popularized by Zhabdung Ngawang Namgyal, is an offering of wine – an oblation – to the lama, yidam, pawo, khandrum, choechong sungma, neydag and zhidag to secure their blessings for the removal of obstacles, and for the successful outcome of the endeavour being inaugurated. Naturally, the sacred ceremony is important. And Lam Sangay and his…

Transparent and accountable?

March 24, 2010Posted inGovernment
The cabinet’s website is actually quite good. It is clean, simple, quick and easy to navigate. And it provides useful information. That is, until they stopped posting the government’s executive orders, cabinet decisions and press releases. So in my previous post, I didn’t mean to complain that the cabinet’s website was bad in any way. What I did mean, however, was to point out that the cabinet had stopped sharing important information on their website. Unless they compromise national security, executive orders and cabinet decisions must be made public. Otherwise how should we know what our government is doing?…

Cabinet’s idle website

March 22, 2010Posted inGovernment15 Comments
I trust that part of the Nu 2.05 billion total solutions project will go towards updating the cabinet’s website – for some odd reason, the cabinet has stopped publishing their executive orders, cabinet decisions, and press releases on their website.