BHUTAN, Land Of Paradoxes

One cannot help but marvel at our indomitable spirit. Even as we are overwhelmed by a sense of extreme anxiety at our uncertain future, we do not fail to derive a sense of comic and humor in our countless failures. Let it not be said that the Bhutanese are NOT a spirited lot of people. 😂😂😂

For proof, check out the following:

WORSENING INEFFICEINCY

In the past the inefficiency in the service delivery by the civil service was blamed on the lazy and non-performing government employees. Now they have even better reason for the current, and even poorer service delivery: it is attributed to the large-scale exodus of the petrified public employees to Australia.

NOT SO FUNNY

In the hope of curtailing tax evasion, the Department of Revenue and Customs (DRC) had, few months back, announced that they would be checking the bank balances in the savings bank accounts of the people. It is not clear how successful the drive would have been - but one thing was left in no doubt - it is rumored that the announcement caused a dangerous, and historic, even if minor, “bank run” - resulting in a massive withdrawal of cash from the banks by worried depositors. Unconfirmed reports say that it caused an unheard of situation of shortage of bank notes! The falling foreign exchange reserve was problem enough - but this was so unexpected. It is not very common that banks run out of currency notes. By itself this is not a problem - currency notes can be printed and reissued, and replenished. Now, had the banks run out of deposits, that would have been a different matter. But obviously the problem was not so severe - few, if any, seem to have heard of the "run".

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

The Education Minister recently declared that the country has a shortage of 842 teachers across the country.

The Royal Government of Bhutan spends millions every year - in training schoolteachers in two of the country’s teacher training colleges. At the end of the training period they are required to sit for an interview to qualify to be employed as teachers in government schools, conducted by the RCSC. Strangely, during the selection process a large number of them are declared unfit to teach. It does not seem like a creative thing to do - to train the teachers absolutely free of cost - only to be declared unfit for the job for which the government had trained them, over many years.

Train them until they are unfit for the job!

THE DARK SIDE OF OUR HYDROPOWER PROJECTS

Bhutan claims that our hydropower projects are run-of-the-river projects that produce “clean” energy. Our claim to being the world’s only carbon negative country is primarily based on our claim that we help off-set use of fossil fuel and that 70% of our country is forested.

And yet, the truth is that the planned PHPA-I Dam will rise to a staggering height of 130 Mtrs. (426 ft.) when completed, if ever. The massive destruction caused to the environment during and after the construction phase, including the emission of methane gas, post construction, goes unreported. Also, we ignore the fact that not all our forests contain CO2 sequestering trees.

The true face of hydropower projects revealed!

COUNTRY WITH THE MOST PRISTINE ENVIRONMENT

We pride ourselves as a champion of environmental conservation with strong laws to safeguard the natural world. Protection of the environment is supposed to be one of the four pillars of our famous GNH philosophy. But it does not appear that our record is as clean, or admirable, as we would like to believe, or put out. We may be among the only countries in the world against which a PIL is filed in the Supreme Court - by a foreign country.

Historic incidence of acid rain in the country

Another historic event for Bhutan - champion of environmental conservation being slapped with a PIL in India's Supreme Court - for extreme pollution!

COUNTRY WITH THE WORLD’s HIGHEST WATER RESOURCE

Bhutan has one of the highest per capita availability of water in the world. Official figures show that Bhutan generates about 70,500 million m3 of water annually, meaning each Bhutanese should ideally have access to about 94,500 m3 of water per person per year. And yet, we suffer from problem of chronic water shortage - both for drinking as well as for farming/irrigation.

Water, Water everywhere, not a drop to drink

OUR CLAIM OF ORGANIC FARMING

For the past many decades we have made the claim that our farm produces are organically grown and have pooh-poohed at the imported stuff. The ugly truth seems to be something else. It appears that we are clueless as to what constitutes organic farming. Contrary to claims, going by the figures released by the Department of Agriculture last year, it is clear that we impregnate 2% (current total land area under cultivation) of our land with incredible 3,405,500.00 KGs of chemical substances such as fertilizer/weedicide/pesticide etc.

Proof that we practice organic farming?