A Job Well Done

The royal wedding is over and everyone agrees that the ceremony and the celebrations were fantastic. No one doubts that His Majesty has made a good choice in his queen. I myself remained glued to the TV watching the proceedings - I refused to apply for accreditation for the occasion because I wanted to avoid another run-in with the agents of the ROM. I couldn’t have been able to sanely handle another tryst with them.

While there is no doubt that the Bhutanese people had a gala time, what of the international audience; what of the visiting media personnel? How did they view the arrangements that were made for their convenience? After all, an event is as good, or as bad, as it is presented to the audience.

I played host to a Delhi-based reporter of an international news organization. I did my part to ensure that the reporter had a good time while covering the all-important event. The following is my email to the reporter and the reply I got. From the reply it is obvious that, on the whole, the Government of Bhutan and the organizers did an excellent job.


Traffic control and flow was outstanding as well. Our men in blue did well.

CONGRATULATIONS!

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Hi M,

Thank you for the mail ... I am impressed that you were kind enough to inform me of your safe arrival in Delhi so promptly.

Yea .. I intentionally wanted you to have a comfortable hotel while here in Bhutan ... and I think that Nak-sel hotel in Paro has nicely appointed rooms and calm and tranquility which I thought you might enjoy after your noisy Delhi. That is why I was eager that even your last night in Bhutan should be spent at Nak-sel. I am happy that I made no mistake there :)

I hope that our government was not found wanting in the arrangements they made for the visiting media. But I know that we do not have much experience in handling such a huge influx of media personnel. Surely, there must have been shortfalls but please forgive us if you were inconvenienced in any way. And, if there is any improvement you can suggest in the arrangements, please let me know .. We will not be offended but take it as a useful suggestion ……….

Bye and take care .. and it has been a pleasure knowing you.

Yeshey”

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Yeshey

Thanks for reply.  Please give me your address, so that I can mail you the SIM card.

I think the Bhutan government did a good job taking care of us.  First of all, we were granted very good and exclusive access to various occations during the wedding.  Secondly, we were well fed, ha! Thirdly, although the stadium's internet did not work, internet at other places worked just fine.  As far as I am concerned, the only thing that bothered me a bit was a liason officer who was supposed to attend me and three other journalists for three days was not helpful compared to other liason officers.  He was nice enough and willing to be helpful but, in my case especially in Phunakha, he ended up creating confusions.  You can ask Rinzin for the details. Journalists are one of the most demanding and abnoxious kind of people as you know.  Especially, those journalists from the US and European countries are the worst, I think.  They think the world is for them. To meet their demands is very difficult and it's just impossible.  I think the government did well in spite of a lack of experience and the limited capacity.

I am not trying to be nice here.  This is my honest opinion.  I have seen so many ill equiped media centers in many countries. Compared to those cases, Bhutan indeed did a really good job.

M"