The Waning Ngar & The Failing Bhutanese GenZ

I do not expect that it will make much difference even if I should climb atop the Mt. Gungkhar Puensoom and yell from its peak - in all likelihood it would be no more than a cry in the wilderness. And yet, no person with any conscience can remain calm and unaffected, in the face of so much recklessness. It is not that I find fault behind the reason or the cause of the sudden stampede for Australia - it is the fact that it appears that most of the dream chasers are doing so with their EYES SHUT TIGHT.

It is sad. I am aware - and I have said this so many times in the past - that the Bhutanese are not a thinking lot. But we do have a mind - although even that is now becoming doubtful. No one appointed me moral guardian of the Bhutanese people - unfortunately I cannot help but worry that what is happening today has the potential to completely derail the country and cause it mortal injury.

The mindless chase for the Australian Visa seems to have awoken the hitherto slumbering Lucifer in us - the latent scoundrel has risen. Our moral probity has fallen so low that parents and siblings think nothing of condoning adultery and even incest. Even the law seems to willingly put its stamp of approval on the many cases of false declarations. Our immorality knows no bound - I am told that some stoop so low as to allow his/her spouse to be pronounced legally wedded to someone else - merely for the sake of a piece of paper called Australian Visa, and to be able to embark on a journey of infinite uncertainty.

Money? Human decency? I think we know which one will win over the other. The question then arises: Is it worth losing sleep over something that apparently is already a lost cause?

I believe that it may still be worth it, despite the apparent hopelessness. Some people have finally begun to speak of the dark side of the great Australian dream - as opposed to the fairy tale that has so far been put out. At last, some conversation is happening. The Kuensel’s last Friday issue (15/07/2023) carried the following front-page article:

The start of the rumblings

In response to my last post titled “The Irresistible Bhutanese Itch”, a retired senior member of the society decided to finally squeak a few words - he wrote:

     “Is it fair for children born as Bhutanese who were educated by the state to leave everything to the

     head of the state?”

One anonymous reader commented on my blog:

     “I beg to differ from the negative outlook on the Aussie exodus but shall not argue my case here”

In response to the above comment, a brilliant reader from the USA sends me a WhatsApp message that reads:

     “I wish the anonymous commenter would have argued his case in public on your blog. I’d be curious

     how he is justifying the exodus to Australia”.

Another friend outside the country commented:

     “It may be time Bhutan opens up. Or there may be no Bhutan GenZs left”.

Yet another reader comments:

     “Bhutan should seriously consider dual citizenship to attract that ‘70%’ back home”.

We need to talk about this and we need to do it yesterday - tomorrow may be too late. Perhaps one way to halt the zombie-like march is to counter it with what lies hidden underneath the carpet - expose the inconvenient truths! Or, may be we are destined, like I said in my last post, to wait for nature’s curative ways to come to our rescue.

Most will likely say that there is no opportunity within the country. That would be too simplistic a viewpoint to take. For a change we could learn to look at the issue from another point of view: opportunities do not exist - we create them for ourselves!

Now you know where His Majesty’s talk of waning of the “Ngar” comes from - and the letdown by the GenZ that my friend spoke about above.

I know that the issue is very complex and taking the moral high ground is least of the answer to solving our many problems. The human animal has always been a habitual wanderer - journeying across the far-flung continents and the seven seas. It would be so terribly wrong to see fault in our modern day fortune seekers. But we have to remember that we never failed to balance our priorities - the voyages have always brought back home wealth, prosperity, and human progress.

We need to make sure hat we remain true to our basic nature.