Deliberate Misinformation

There is something not quite right about this whole business about the proposed construction of the Shingkhar-Gorgan road across the wilderness of the TNP. The more I think about it, the more I am puzzled at the idiocy of the whole business. Nothing rings true - there is something fishy about this whole business. Lets us consider the following:

First and foremost, if the politicians are to be believed, it is the people of Lhuentse who want this road. So then why is it called Shingkhar-Gorgan road? It should rightly be called Gorgan-Shingkhar road. The nomenclature Shingkhar-Gorgan implies that the people of Bumthang want to get to Lhuentse and not the other way round.

Next, if this is a farm road, why is it constructed through a desolate area without a square inch of farm land or a single human settlement? How is a farm road defined and what purpose must it serve?

Third, by definition, farm roads are designed to carry vehicular traffic of the class of farm tractors and power tillers. How will it boost tourist arrivals in Lhuentse and the Eastern Dzongkhags? Are the proponents of the road saying that the tourists will be thrilled to bounce along bumpy and muddy farm roads that run through elevations over 4,000 Meters?

One of the arguments put forward by the proponents of the Shingkhar-Gorgan road is that it will cut travel time which will result in reduction of harmful emission. Does that mean that they hope that a caravan of power tillers and farm tractors will traverse through this perilous wilderness to get to Shingkhar and beyond? If not, how is it possible to reduce emission? Certainly, public transport such as buses and trucks and passenger cars will not drive over farm roads and that too, over a terrain fraught with unsafe climactic conditions such as fog, mist, ice and snow.

Regarding the reduction of travel time merely on the basis that distance will be shortened is something that I am not willing to believe. The distance may be shorter but what is the guarantee that the travel time will be reduced? Particularly when you are talking of treacherous terrain shrouded in mist and fog and caked in ice and snow all the year round? I personally would prefer to drive five hours more but through a route that I am certain will deliver me safely to my destination, rather than risk my life in trying to reduce travel time driving over 22 zigs that may not remain open most of the time.

The government’s established cost estimate for a farm road is Ngultrums three million per Km. The overall distance of the proposed road is as follows:

          Shingkhar to Singmala            6 Kms

          Singamala to Pelphu              30 Kms

          Pelphu to Zhongmay               5 Kms

          Zhongmay to Selibizam          6 Kms

          Selibizam to Gorgan               5 Kms

        TOTAL Distance                   52 Kms

At Ngultrums three million a Km, the road should cost the exchequer a sum of Ngulturms one hundred and fifty six million. Additionally, the government has committed that the road will be constructed with the most stringent environment friendly construction practices. This will mean that the cost of the road will be will be four times more!

Why is a lie being put out that the road can be done in under Ngultrums sixty million?

Startlingly, the most Honorable MPs from Lhuentse, in their doggedness to get this road, declared that Lhuentse Dzongkhag is the poorest Dzongkhag in the country. That is in contrary to the government published statistics. Surely, putting out misinformation of this nature is being very irresponsible and designed to deliberately undermine some other Dzongkhags who deserve better treatment than they have been getting so far?

Does the government have so much money to build such lavish farm roads? If yes, then we the people in Khengri Nam Sum want some of that money because, as per the NSB’s fact sheet, as of 2008, Lhuentse has 77.5 Kms of farm road for a total population of 15,395, while the whole of Zhemgang with a population of 18,636 has only 28.5 Kms of farm road.

How about some fair deal for a change?

No Thank You, Lhuentsips!

Yesterday evening I was in the BBS studio hoping to exchange views with the panelists on the matter concerning the proposed unlawful construction of the controversial Shingkhar-Gorgan road across the wilderness of the TNP. The set of questions that I wanted to ask could not have been answered by anyone who comprised the panelists. So I didn’t ask a single question. It was a wasted effort.

But as I plodded out of the BBS studio, something stuck me. I, as a member of the Kheng community, may no longer feel ashamed to be belonging to the poorest Dzongkhag in the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is now official - the government has declared it and the most Honorable MPs from Lhuentse have declared it - Lhuentse is now the poorest Dzongkhag in the country. In one stroke, the Shingkhar-Gorgan highway has been downgraded to the status of a farm road while, simultaneously, elevating Zhemgang Dzongkhag one notch up the economic/development ladder.

I am getting serious bad vibes here. Either the government is trying to hoodwink the people of Bhutan or they are totally clueless about the state of affairs in the country that they have been elected to govern.

The drama and theater aside, I strongly object to the government and the Lhuentse MPs usurping the Zhemgang Dzongkhag’s just and factual status as the poorest Dzongkhag in the country. Just because the government wishes to unfairly allocate a huge chunk of public money to do a luxuries by-pass that will enable the people of Lhuentse to get to Thimphu in a hurry, it is not good enough reason to put a blemish on the decades old reputation of my Dzongkhag as the poorest Dzongkhag in the country. That distinction belongs to the Kheng people and, unless the government wakes up and does something to alter that status, the reputation of the poorest Dzongkhag must belong to us Khengpas.

Sorry Lhuentsips, you are not welcome to that enviable status. It belongs to the Khengpas!

Shingkhar-Gorgan Farm Road

For whatever reason, the unfathomable desperation to build a road across the wilderness from Shingkhar in Bumthang to Gorgan in Lhuentse is getting more and more preposterous. Are some of our elected leaders suffering from Brain fog or are they on a diet of Death Root? I am bewildered.

Today’s Bhutan Times features an article on their front page that is headlined “Farm Road in Place of Highway”. As incredulous as it may sound, the reporter of the news article stands by what she wrote in the article - that the government has now downgraded the proposed Shingkhar-Gorgan secondary highway to that of a farm road and that they intend to go ahead and build the road.

I was aghast at the implications of what was said in the article so I called up the reporter to reconfirm that she got her facts right. She was in no doubt that she reported exactly what she was told by the two MP’s she named in her news report.

It is incredible to say the least! I mean the government would actually build a Ngultrums sixty million worth of farm road across the wilderness that does not have a square inch of farmland or a single human settlement? Does it get any more bizarre?

According to the news report, the Gangzur-Minjay MP is quoted as saying; “……… the road is the biggest aspiration of the people of Lhuentse”. Something is totally amiss here. Why would the people of Lhuentse aspire for a road that would run through total wilderness, one that exits at Pelphu Goenpa and terminate at Shingkhar in Bumthang, at a cost of sixty million Ngultrums? Aren’t they better off asking for farm roads and other services in their gewogs and villages?

Of the two surveys and feasibility studies conducted, the latest one was undertaken from 8^th to 14^th October, 2010. Out of the 5 members that comprised the latest study group, the two Lhuentse MPs were members along with a member from the Dzongkhag Administration and two from the Department of Roads. A report submitted by this team categorically states that:

a.     There is not a single human settlement between Shingkhar
        and Pelphu Goenpa - overall distance: 36 Kms.

b.   Of that length, more than half of it will pass through altitudes over 3,000 Mtrs. Barely 8 Kms from Shingkhar, the road has to pass over a high pass called Singmala at an elevation of over 4,000 Mtrs - way higher than Thrumshingla pass which is a perennial problem during the winter months. The report also states that “because of the elevation, the construction and maintenance will be affected since the area will be snow bound for extended period of time”.

c. The report also states that the road alignment envisages a minimum total of 22 zigs. This clearly means that the terrain is very steep and thus, prone to land slides.

d. A Park (TNP) officer I spoke to tells me that the area is wet and shrouded in mist and fog half the year and the other half it is snow bound. He also tells me that the soil condition is very lose and sandy and very unstable.

e. On page 3 of the Checklist for Processing Environmental Clearance, it is stated that the construction will involve the use of explosives consisting of: Gelatin, Safety fuse, Detonator and Cordex. The results will be catastrophic - given that the whole area is unstable and fragile.

f. The TNP and the Forest Department have, on two occasions - once in April, 2007 and another in June, 2011 refused the clearance for the construction of the road on various grounds but mainly because there is a law in place that prohibits construction of any kind in the core areas of a Park.

g. The first ever photographic evidence of the existence of Bengal Tiger at high altitudes was acquired from a place called Pemi in 2001. This place is in the vicinity of proposed Shingkhar-Gorgan highway.

It is rumored that the required budget of Ngultrums sixty million to construct the road will be drawn from the overall seven billion of the SDP fund available for small development projects in the Dzongkhags. But it remains to be seen whether the SDP fund can be applied to construct a highway across the alpine wilderness that do not benefit any community. Other than that, there seems to be one other problem - I am told that a project to be funded with the SDP fund cannot exceed Ngultrums 30 million. Come to think of it, I wonder if the reason for the down gradation of the highway to the status of a farm road is to be able to qualify for funding from SDP fund? But what of the requirement that the project cost cannot exceed Ngultrums thirty million?

May be they will invite the Bumthang Dzongkhag MPs - Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho of Tang-Chhoekhor Constituency and Dungtsho Karma Wangchuk of Chume-Ura Constituency to participate in the project since the exit point of the high way falls under their Dzongkhag in Shingkhar.

That will be really funny.

Much Ado About Nothing

Years ago, a friend offered me this rather queer kind of logic. He told me that it is not a crime to commit a crime but being caught in the act. The thought of this rather uncommon logic came to mind because I am rummaging through old newspapers and for the life of me, I cannot find a single report on tobacco related arrests in the past many weeks. So what happened? Has the Tobacco Control Act finally broken the backs of the smugglers and the delinquent smokers?

Or, have they all turned into smart criminals?

While on the subject of criminals turning smart, another thought comes to mind - that of the government’s proposal to construct the Shingkhar-Gorgan by-pass: please notice that I am calling it a by-pass and not a highway because we already have a national highway and do not need an additional one. The proposed road is said to be passing through the core tiger conservation area and cutting right across our world famous Biological Corridor which we have proudly called “Gift to the Earth from Bhutan”.

Key to my support for the Tobacco Control Act was for the need for strong laws and even stronger will to enforce those laws. It wasn’t about the need to ban tobacco consumption, as some have mistakenly misunderstood. But should the government go ahead and build that road across the wilderness that is home to some of the rarest wildlife species in the world, I would say that the spirit of the Tobacco Control Act would have been broken.

I am told that there are a number of laws and by-laws that prohibit construction of any kind within the protected areas of the park systems of Bhutan. Unless those laws are first repealed, how can the construction of the by-pass go ahead? No amount of justification, humanitarian or otherwise, can condone the breaking of a law. In particular, it would be foolish for the central government to be seen to be doing so. On the other hand, it does not seem like it is justifiable that such an expensive road, both in monetary as well as environmental terms, is warranted merely on the grounds that the people from Lhuntse Dzongkhag has the urge to get to Thimphu in a hurry. The government must bear in mind that while it seems to be eager to extend the luxury of an exclusive by-bass to the people of Lhuntse, people in other Dzongkhags lack basic necessities such as piped drinking water, farm roads and proper school facilities.

No doubt environmental conservation cannot come at the cost of human progress and livelihood. But from all accounts, the environmental damage that will be caused by the Shingkhar-Gorgan by-pass is likely to far outweigh the benefits that will accrue to the people of Lhuntse. People may offer a host of reasons why the road must be constructed, but all of them will pale against the argument that this by-pass is not critical and is unnecessary and just too expensive for the purpose it is proposed.

And what of our reputation as a champion of environmental conservation? How do we explain this irresponsibility to our many donor agencies that pumped in millions of Ngultrums to help us create the Biological Corridor and the conservation initiatives that have been put into place? How do we hope to justify the saving of 1-2 hours of driving time over the dismantling of a conservation effort that is a shinning example of our commitment to conservation?

Ludlow's Bhutan Swallowtail

The image posted below is the magnificent Ludlow’s Bhutan Swallowtail (Bhutanitis ludlowi). This is the rarer of the two rare butterflies that I hope to photograph this season.

The image was acquired from Tobrang, which is about 5 hours trek from Bomdeling, Trashiyangtsi. The photo was shot at 9.30AM on 12^th August, 2011 at an altitude of 2,281 Mtrs. The butterfly is seen feeding on a white flowering plant called Viburnum cylindricum.

I have heard some Forestry officials mention that this butterfly may soon be named as the national butterfly of Bhutan. This stunningly beautiful butterfly certainly qualifies to be called one.

The existence of this butterfly came to be known sometime in 1933-34 in Trashiyangtse area of Eastern Bhutan (possibly discovered by the famous English naturalist F. Ludlow, given that the butterfly is named "Ludlow"). Claims have been made that it also exists in Yunnan, China. However, to date, the claim and the source remain unverified.

Seventy-seven years later, this extremely rare butterfly was rediscovered on 28^th August, 2009, by a Bhutanese Forester who was than working with the Bomdeling Wildlife Sanctuary. After two attempts, Mr. Karma Wangdi from Kheng Zurphey sighted and took a specimen of the butterfly from Tobrang area. He is currently attached with the Ugyen Wangchuk Institute for Conservation and Environment (UWICE), Bumthang.

A number of officials from the Nature Conservation Division, Thimphu and the  UWICE, Bumthang are currently engaged in a collaborative research work with the Butterfly Society of Japan and NHK Television. This is perhaps the first ever such research done on the butterfly.

Honor is a serious business with the Japanese people so I am sure that they will not do a BBC tiger discovery job on us. I wish the research team the VERY BEST OF LUCK. They are still in Tobrang - I am on my way to the south of Trashigang – hunting for another less rare but even more beautiful butterfly called the BHUTAN GLORY.

Please wish me luck!

Ludlow's Bhutan Swallowtail II

Butterflies From Trashiyangtsi

For the past close to two weeks, I have been on the road in and around Trashiyangtsi area - photographing butterflies. Trashiyangtsi may be Bhutan’s most important area for butterflies.

My primary target is to photograph the rare Ludlow’s Bhutan Swallowtail (Bhutanitis ludlowi) and the Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis lidderdalii) both of which are extremely pretty butterflies. Ludlow’s Bhutan Swallowtail (Bhutanitis ludlowi) is endemic to Bhutan and, as of now, it is found only in Tobrang area and nowhere else in the country. Bhutan Glory is found further down in Pemagatsel, Narphung and Riserbu areas including in Gedu-Taktikothi areas in the West.

The magnificent Ludlow’s Bhutan Swallowtail (Bhutanitis ludlowi) is already in the bag :) - I will post an image of it in a while. I will now be hunting for the Bhutan Glory which our own “Bird Sherub” tells me can be found in and around Pemagatsel, Narphung and Riserbu areas. I will post an image of it later - if I am lucky enough to see and photograph one.

The following are few of the many butterflies that I photographed in Trashiyangtsi area.

Photos Of Butterflies From Tashiyangtse

New CEO/MD of Bhutan Telecom Limited

I am shocked. Something is totally amiss here. It is as if something or someone is directing events from behind the scene in such a way that Bhutan is steadily being steered on a course of self-destruction and chaos. I get the feeling that some mischief is afoot.

Yes, I am talking of the rumored appointment of the Director of CST, Phuentsholing as the new MD/CEO of the Bhutan Telecom Ltd. How the hell has that happened? It totally blows my mind. With due respect to all the brilliant minds who must have got together to set the criterion for the selection of the new CEO/MD of BTL, I have this question: How did an educator get to qualify to take the reins of a high technology commercial entity engaged in a highly specialized field of operation?  It baffles me - how does a serving academician fit into a job that requires marketing skills, a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the technological trends and developments in the three core areas of the Corporation’s business, knowledge and expertise in innovative product design and packaging etc.? Can he even understand the language the techies who make up the bulk of the Corporation’s workforce, speak?

By no means I am inferring that the Director of the CST is an incompetent person. In fact I am told that he has been doing a great job at the CST. But, no one may refute that an educator’s competencies lie elsewhere. Actually, this reminds me of a funny ad of the Naukri.com that I use to see on TV. In that ad, an extremely competent cricketer is shown pounding away with his bat at a dhobi ghat - performing the job of a dhobi.

While one aspect of the issue is that of a wrong person in a wrong job, the other aspect is that we are wasting an extremely rare talent that the country sorely lacks - that of a competent educator. In my understanding, the Director of CST cannot be of a run-of-the-mill kind of a person. He must possess some outstanding qualities and be suitably educated and trained to head and oversee a premier educational institution such as the CST. How did the government release him?

Clearly this is a double whammy situation. What is happening here is that we are loosing an established and respected educator on the one hand and, on the other, we are putting the same rare talent in a job that he is not suited for. In the process, we are endangering one of the most successful and profitable public companies that have grown from strength to strength over the years. We need the BTL to be headed by someone who can not only count on the support and respect of the company’s numerous staff, but also with an expertise and the vision to take the company forward in this increasingly competitive business environment.

The government needs to intervene and take stock of the situation before disaster happens.

A Page Out Of A Bygone Era

I was young and I was impressionable. It was a time when the skimpy “choosh” pants were being edged out of the closet by the silo-sized “GOGO” pants that became the rage of the day. It was “stylish” to sport an unruly, long and wildly flowing hairstyle known as the “Jesus cut” - not the sleek, pony-tailed type that the present-day aficionados prefer. One of the things that was in vogue those heady days was to be seen to be outlandish, nonconformist and something of a weirdo. The highest form of fashion sense was when you dared show a bit of your bottom peeping out of the opening that you intentionally slashed into your jeans. I was too much of a traditionalist and so I wasn’t into all that. But in keeping with the times, and to demonstrate my superior sense of sophistication and taste, I bought myself this utterly meaningless book titled “Book of Nothing”. A man-about-town had to be owning something funky and groovy. And, this book was simply far-out!

It was a regular A4-sized book, immaculately bound with its title exquisitely embossed in a text that exuded class and refinement. Inside, it contained pages upon pages of beautifully textured paper of the highest quality - containing absolutely NOTHING - except for a single short sentence at the bottom of each sheet - printed in the minutest print possible, resembling that of a insurance policy fine print that promises you nothing for everything. The small prints at the bottom of each of the pages read something like: “Nothing for nothing” or “It is very difficult to do nothing” or “You get nothing for nothing” etc.

On Sunday afternoons, I would take the book to such chic places as the Flury’s in Kolkata, select a corner table that is the most brightly lit among all the tables in the great hall - for visual effect. The measure of your standing is judged by how promptly a waiter presents himself to serve you. Any one needing to raise his hand or holler for the attention of a waiter is looked upon with pity and disdain. Having invested a substantial sum in generous tips during my past visits to the establishment, waiters jostled and scrambled to attend to my table. The most nimble-footed would edge out the rest and approach my table and, with supreme congeniality ask me, in usual formality; “Your usual, Sir?”

My “usual” would be a pot of fine Darjeeling tea and an assortment of pastries. While the waiter disappears into the back room to fill in my order, I would pull out my Book of Nothing and make a suave, visual survey of the great Flury’s tearoom - to see if there were any one who I recognized. Even if there were, a knowing smile and a gentle nod of the head were all that was needed to acknowledge his/her presence. Anything beyond that was considered unsophisticated and inferior.

As the waiter begins to fawn all over me serving tea and laying out the pastries, I would begin my great act of reading the book with undistracted attention - unhindered by the clang and clatter of the cutlery of a great mass of people having their afternoon tea. To complete the show, my eyes would be strained with intense concentration at the blank pages of the Book of Nothing. Occasionally, an acquaintance would pass by my table and seek my permission to flip through the blank pages of the book and utter some words of appreciation such as; “Ah .. so refreshingly different and … umm … unique” - to demonstrate his/her own level of sophistication and worldliness.

The next sophisticated thing I did was to buy myself a largish, black and white, horizontally oriented comic book titled “The Fillipino Food”. During a period when quaint little comic books with prim and proper characters right out of the Mills & Boon classics were the order of the day, this comic book was filled with morbid graphics of an energetic hero brandishing a gargantuan syringe in place of his manhood. While he himself experienced a star-spangled orgasmic release, the person whose arm he poked with his syringe shriveled and died away. On one of the sixty odd pages of the book, a woman was shown lying on her back with her legs spread wide open and a TV screen in place of her Kesang Buthri. On it was depicted the cosmic mandala, the Milky Way and the gateway to the heavens. All these abstract renderings were totally beyond my sophistication and intellect - finally exposing me for the country bumpkin that I really was.

One portrayal in the comic book that remained etched in my mind over the years is its depiction of the human race sprouting out of an old, stinking tennis shoe. I clearly understood and commiserated with this uncommon theory. That is why, perhaps, the human race, even after so many centuries of continuous evolution, still secretes the stink and the stench of its place of origin.

The Pitfalls Of Half-Truths

Half truths, like half-knowledge, are extremely dangerous. They not only help permeate misinformation, they misguide and mislead people. This truth was brought home to me recently as a result of a local weekly printing only Part I of my three-part article I wrote on this Blog - supporting the Tobacco Control Act.

It would be, perhaps, unfair to assume that this weekly deliberately attempted to mislead its readers by failing to print all three parts of my article. However, the reporter at that paper could not have failed to see that unless Part I of my article is read in conjunction with Part II and III, the core issues I raise would be lost to his/her readers. In fact, read in isolation, the Part I of the article sounds more like an emotional outburst of an adolescent rather than a well thought-out view of a seriously concerned citizen.

The following true-life incident will demonstrate how a media house has to be careful about what they print or do not print in their papers. A thoughtless and irresponsible media can cause serious problems.

Blissfully unaware that a printed version of Part I of my article in my Blog was reproduced by one of the newspapers, I walked into the office of one of my long time friends for whom I have the highest esteem and respect. In a world filled with ass lickers and gold diggers, he remains one obstinately principled person who dares to speak his mind - to the point of sounding uncouth and rebellious. He is a no-nonsense person but for reasons unknown, this day, he sounded like a person gone totally bananas.

The moment I entered his office, he yelled; “Oh there you are you asshole! Who gives a shit about what you think?”

I was dumb founded. I had no idea what the guy was talking about. So I asked him; “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I am talking about your smart-aleck article in the Journalist. You want to know what I think about it?”

I said; “What the hell are you talking about? What article? I did not write any article in any paper”.

“The stupid article you wrote on the Tobacco Control Act”.

It dawned on me that the paper must have reproduced my article and the fellow must be referring to it. I told him I didn’t know that the article was reproduced there. I told him I will look it up.

Still fuming, he said: “You want to know what I think of your views?” With that he proceeded to pull out a cigarette from the packet that was lying on his table, lit it and started to puff away at it vigorously - until he was coughing breathlessly.

I looked on aghast. Why is such a level-headed guy acting like a man possessed? Obviously my article infuriated him so much that he forgot he is not allowed to smoke in a public space. He could stand to be penalized for what he was doing.

Once he cooled down a bit, I began to explain to him my point of view. He looked a little startled and said that I said nothing like that (I realized much later that he read only Part I of the article) in the article. Half an hour later, two of us began to discuss the flaws in the Act and what amendments were needed to be made to the Law.

At the end, he understood that the issue I was discussing went way beyond the need to control tobacco consumption. I laboriously explained to him that central to my argument is the need for strong laws to bring order and discipline into our society. I explained to him that the TCA is in no way a flawless Act but that is no reason for people to trash it as a bad law. It is a law that present day Bhutan needs desperately.

Butterflies and Lizards

Can anyone ID the creatures? Look at the color variations on the two lizards. Could it be that one is a female? Or is it displaying colors of agitation?

Lizzards & Bueeterlifes

All-Hail To All The Smart-asses Of This World!

-->I am currently lodged at my dad’s home in Tingtingbi. I was in the area shooting butterflies so I dropped by to participate in the Local Government (LG) elections that was conducted yesterday the 27^th of June, 2011.

My dad and me, we usually cover every topic on the first day of our meeting - as of the second day, he will go back to howling his prayers at the top of his voice as if the Gods were deaf and I will make a beeline for the woods and the riverside, shooting whatever there is to shoot. So, here we were, talking of things this and that. We began with the LG elections.

I knew exactly which Gup and which Tsogpa would get my vote but as far as the Mang-Gey-Aapa - that is what we Khengpas called them; others call them Maang-Gi-Aap or Mangmi - was concerned, although I did not know a thing about the candidates, my dad told be exactly who I should vote for. Well, why not? The old man does not realize it but in accepting to do his bidding now, I am thinking long term. Come 2013, if need be, I am going to remind him that it is pay back time. By accepting to do what he wants me to do now will give me the moral right to ask him to do a return of favor - to vote for the political party and the candidate of my choice. You see, the world over, horse-trading is accepted as a skillful form of effective negotiation.

Well, I agree that it is rather foxy of me, but the reality is that he is the local guy and thus, my dad, and not I, has to face the consequences of voting in a wrong Local Government candidate. So, it is only fair that his decision and wisdom should override mine. As a dweller of the Gyelsa Tewa, I am more concerned with the government at the national level. When it comes to that, I cannot have my dad farting around with opposing views to mine. If he does, I will, most pleasurably, remind him of this day :).

One topic that my dad unfailingly brings up is the unfair manner in which the government took over his family land at Tingtingbi - with the proposal to relocate the Zhemgang Dzong and to set up a modern Township. In the process, his family lost 13 acres of prime irrigation land. After two and half decades, the Zhemgang Dzong remains perched on the same ancient hillock where it has always been and, the proposed Township site is now overrun with grass and weed. Particularly for my dad, it was a painful loss because he spent 21 years of his prime youth - plodding to and from the Dzongkhag Court and the High Court - fighting a legal battle with his cousin who attempted to wrest the ownership of the land from him and his family. He won the case, only to lose the land to the government.

However, this narrative is not about the injustice done to my dad but the pathetic attitude of a Dzongda the likes of who, it would appear, may be behind a lot of suffering of the poor rural folks. This is the first time my dad told me of the incident and I am disgusted that such a moron can be appointed as a Dzongda.

My dad’s grouse is that the compensation offered for his family’s land was way too low as opposed to what was given in the Western part of the country suffering similar losses - such as those in Thimphu and Punakha. He appealed to the central government, through the local government (Dzongkhag in those days) requesting that his family be given enhanced cash compensation or, failing that, be recompensed with substitute land, in addition to the pitifully inadequate cash compensation that was paid his family. His argument was that since the land tax paid by him in Tingtingbi is at par with that paid by people in Thimphu and Punakha, it was not justified that he should receive lower land compensation rates than that which is paid to those in Thimphu or Punakha.

Term after term, he unfailingly appealed to every new Dzongda who took office in Zhemgang Dzong in the hope that the new appointee might be of a different mind set and see his viewpoint and thus, take up the issue with the government. No such luck. Then one day a very smart Dzongda took office in Zhemgang Dzong and suggested to him a way out. This Dzongda told him the following:

“If you wish to get the same compensation rates received by those people in Thimphu and Punakha, you ought to dislodge your land from Kheng area and carry it on your back and take it to Thimphu or Punakha.”

There is no dearth of smart-asses in this world.

Viewshed Analysis

One reader from a distant land obviously feels as distressed as many of us here in Bhutan who have been silently suffering the humiliation of the Amankora being built along side the very special Wangdicholing Palace. The reader sent me the following mail.

The reader talks of something called “Viewshed Analysis”. I think I can guess what it means and I am excited by the concept. That is precisely my view as well. I am not objecting to the setting up of Amakora chain of hotels around the country. My objection is that they do so without taste or regard for our culture and heritage and as if to deliberately insult our sense of aesthetics. It is a pity that a bunch of unthinking and incompetent people agreed to allow such a grotesque structure to be built by the side of Wangdicholing Palace. If they cared, they should have allowed the construction of the hotel at another location where it was unlikely to be such an eye sore - like their other hotels in Thimphu, Paro, Punakha and Phobjikha.

One day, sitting at the Jorden restaurant in Hong Kong market, Tenzin Rigden, one of the senior most journalists of Bhutan asked me a question: How important and valid is culture and tradition in the context of Bhutan of present times?. One of these days, I am going to elaborate on the short answer I gave him, but for now, I invite you to read the following mail and get the implications of what the writer is saying:

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Hello Yeshey,

I am afraid I come across as a know-it-all whenever I comment on issues in Bhutan as I have spent mere months there. So, I usually keep my thoughts to myself although I am a follower of your blog and I read each post! The problem of the Jakar Amankora hotel forces me to speak up, however.

For all the talk about protecting Bhutan's culture from foreign influence and controlling the negative impacts of tourism, this is a major, tangible contravention.

There are ways to ensure that if a structure as special as Wangdicholing Palace were to have a development project proposed in its vicinity, it would not be adversely affected. One process would be 'viewshed analysis' which is simply considering the potential visual impact of the proposed development on the historic structure and landscape. The Amankora hotel, which leaves Wangdicholing Palace literally in its shadow, is clearly out of harmony with its historic context. I realize that local administrators in Bhutan don't have access to trained experts and funds to deal with landscape preservation but the monolithic hotel should have been permitted only in a less obtrusive part of the valley.

Since development is happening at such high speed here in my country, we have many processes in place to protect significant structures and landscapes although they don't always succeed. My work now is related to protecting archaeological sites from construction works. I'm working as a civil servant with the Ministry of Culture here in my home province.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I feel extremely inspired and motivated to contribute however I can to the management and protection of Bhutan's historic sites. I hope I can return and do some good work in this area, share what I've learned, maybe even train others. I've had the opportunity for education and experience in this uncommon field, in a setting of rapid development. Nobody in Bhutan right now has this background. I understand and appreciate why there's a continuing backlash against "foreign experts" and I know that non-nationals aren't easily employed in Bhutan (unless sponsored by an NGO, which is my hope) so it would be very difficult to make this happen. But, dreams are not supposed to be simple to achieve, right?

Anyway, thanks for reading all that. I hope you are well and I look forward to your continuing posts and photos.

Take care

A Fallacy Of Gargantuan Proportions

One time a friend introduced me to his young son. 

He said; “Yeshey, this is my son."

In response, I asked him; “Are you sure?"

He looked flustered and asked; “What do you mean?"

I laughed and told him that I was joking. But ofcourse I wasn’t joking. I mean how far is he certain that he really is the progenitor of the boy?

Centuries of societal indoctrination has numbed our mind into believing that a child born to a wedded mother is, without contest, fathered by the husband of the woman bearing the child. This belief is so deep rooted in our consciousness that to suggest otherwise is anathema. But if you were to contemplate this matter a little deeper, you will realize that this is a fallacy of gargantuan proportions. The truth is that no one, but a mother alone may testify to the veracity of the fact. For all you know, the child could have been secretly fathered by someone from Timbuktu.

This brings us to the realization that where the Bhutaneseness of a child is needed to be established, nothing can be as authoritative and genuine and genetically pure as that of the Bhutanese mother who bore the child. Since there is room for duplicity, I think it is erroneous to set the criteria that the father of the child ought to be a Bhutanese for the child to qualify as a Bhutanese. This does not seem like a foolproof authentication means to validate the Bhutaneseness of a child because of the possibility that the Bhutanese father may not be the real progenitor of the child. On the contrary, there is no question of any doubt about the mother being not the mother of the child.

The continuing census problems faced by the fatherless children born to Bhutanese mothers not being recognized as bona fide Bhutanese on the grounds that their fathers are unidentifiable or have gone missing is something of a misnomer. As long as the mothers are Bhutanese that should be more than enough justification to warrant the recognition of these children as Bhutanese.

A benevolent law should not encourage gender bias and unequal treatment. We have always been a matriarchal society and thus, it is not in our character to treat our women as if they were second class citizens. Our laws should give them the same dignity, right and freedom as those that are accorded our men.

I hope our Parliamentarians will work towards amending the existing laws that allow such disparity in the recognition of the rights of our women.

In Support Of Tobacco Control Act: Part III

We are a nation of barely 700,000 people. If we should fail as a society, it will not be because of our unmanageable population or because nature hasn’t been bountiful with us - it will be because we are morally corrupt, intellectually impotent, undisciplined and, above all, habitual law-breakers without a conscience or a sense of duty. The signs of decay and rot are far too evident. Look around you, everything is falling apart and nothing works. Nothing is as required by law.

Have you seen the abominable structure that is the Amankora hotel in Jakar, Bumthang? It has not only broken every single building code and guidelines prescribed for built-up structures in the urban spaces of Bhutan, but the audaciously inappropriate structure has been allowed to be built alongside the historic and iconic Wangdicholing Palace. How did such a sacrilegious monstrosity come to be built next to a national monument that is the citadel of the Wangchuck dynasty?

There is no two ways about it - the structure is a symbol of defiance and a challenge to our laws and disrespect for our heritage. But the shameful thing is that some Bhutanese who are supposed to control such blatant affront to the laws of the land did not do their job - whether knowingly or unknowingly. Who is responsible?

Am I flogging a dead horse? May be, but the very existence of this structure points to something so typically Bhutanese - our total disregard for the law. It is shameful - but I can bet you that those who failed to perform their duties still have the gumption to walk tall and talk of service to the Tsa-Wa-Sum while, those of us who care, has to hang our head in shame every time we pass the Palace because the very existence of that structure by the side of the Palace is a constant reminder to us of the depths to which we have fallen. For a fistful of dollars, we can be capable of selling our very soul!

The morality of the Bhutanese people is at its lowest ebb. Consider, for instance, the case of the car quota privilege accorded to a certain category of civil servants. Everything is so wrong about this supposed entitlement. This is a clear case of state sponsored corruption of the highest order and it has been going on for decades.

Firstly, it assumes that this category of citizens is more deserving than others. The award of this preferential treatment creates a class segregation that implies that those who are not entitled to it are inferior citizens who do not contribute to nation building. The reverse is true - the workers in the corporate and private sectors contribute way more than any civil servant does. It is unethical on the part of the government to reward some while ignoring others.

However, I bring up this issue not because the quota system goes against the concept of the government’s policy of Drangnam and Drangden (Equity & Justice), but because it is associated with one of the most shameful and enduring corrupt practices that has been going on for decades. And, this has happened because, true to form, the Bhutanese people have no shame about blatantly breaking a law.

Like backstreet touts, the civil servants shamelessly peddle their quota entitlements to the highest bidder in the open market. They know they are not allowed to do that, and yet, they have no compunctions about their illegal behavior. Even while the government is aware that such behavior has serious ramifications on the morality of the nation as a whole, it continues to turn a blind eye to this menace. All these point to one thing: something is seriously wrong with the Bhutanese mentality.

The government must accept sole responsibility for the proliferation of such illegal activity among some section of the civil service. In creating the quota system, the government has, in an indirect way, created an enabling condition to lure the civil servants into immorality. The abuse of the car quota system creates not one but two criminals - the seller and the buyer. Few hundred million Ngultrums are lost every year because these buyers are able to evade duty and taxes on the cars they buy in the names of the corrupt civil servants.

Why does our public service delivery fail? Why is a public servant playing computer games when he should be attending to people needing service? Why are civil servants playing archery and making out as if they are fulfilling a national objective while they should be in the office earning their keep? Why is a civil servant feeling chivalrous in spending half a day of public time at the cemetery attending a funeral of some one dead?

Even when there is a rule that prohibits government vehicles from being engaged in private work, why are government vehicles seen at the school parking lots and near chortens dropping off and picking up monks and children? Why is garbage dumped at the spaces where there is a signboard that specifically cautions: NO DUMPING?

Why are the Bhutanese people habitual lawbreakers? The answer is simple: we do not have respect for the law. And, the reason why people do not respect and follow the law is because the laws do not provide for punishments strong enough to deter wrong doers. And, even when there is a law in place, it is poorly enforced, if at all.

We have a desperate need for strong laws to save ourselves. Let us ask for them. We have a government that is showing signs of courage and commitment. Let us encourage them by rendering our support to their initiatives. Let us not be mislead into believing that the Tobacco Control Act does not have the support of the majority of the Bhutanese people - it does because the Act was passed by the Parliamentarians elected by the majority of the Bhutanese people.

We have many problems that need solving. Weak laws and even weaker enforcement isn’t going to solve our problems. To solve them, we need strong laws and determined enforcement agencies to enforce them. Therefore, let us demand for many more of the Tobacco Control Act and hope that, one day, we too will be counted among those nations and societies who respect and adhere to law.