Barter not Bhutan
12 March 2010
Prime Minister is rightly doubtful about joining WTO. WTO is too huge and consumerist for tiny Bhutan. Its philosophy is free trade, which is consumerist in nature. Consumerism is for huge trading economies, not for a young, rudimentary economy like Bhutan. Bhutan stands to gain little from free trade because we have little to trade. Today, the carefully produced little we have to trade is readily... Read the story »
Give Thimphu respite
5 March 2010
Until recently, we have rarely planned bigger than ourselves. Now, we are. But what we often tend to overlook is that bigger plans need bigger space. We are planning a knowledge city in Thimphu. By far, the largest FDI venture, it aims to bring in between 15 and 30 top universities and 40,000 students into a 1000-acre campus. It would mean roughly 20,000 more cars assuming that at least half the knowledge... Read the story »
Putting the cart before the horse?
19 February 2010
Bhutan is opening up to the world at a dizzying pace. And the world has got the whiff of it if foreign companies’ interest in the country is anything to go by. It all started with the government’s tryst with McKinsey and Company. With the coming of the international consultancy firm to the country last year, the government seemed to have become daring in its plans and policies. The hitherto cautious... Read the story »
Pour GNH in, but plug the hole
12 February 2010
Even as the government entrusts the education ministry with infusing GNH values into the system, a hole is appearing at the heart of the system. Even as attracting top graduates to the teaching profession is becoming a formidable challenge, good professionals are quitting the the system in droves every year. Since 2008, when the election commission announced vacancies for electoral officers, most vacancies... Read the story »
Keep it for all
5 February 2010
The government’s new land policy is a major national decision which will have far-reaching implications on all sections of the society. Therefore, it calls for a vigorous public debate. The draft policy aims to put our land to better use by curbing speculation and fraud and by putting in place a progressive taxation policy. The policy removes the landholding ceiling of 25 acres prescribed by... Read the story »
How do we put waste to rest?
29 January 2010
Waste disposal is a mounting urban challenge Bhutan is waking up to. As our towns grow bigger and produce waste in ever-increasing amounts, safe waste disposal sites become an important part of town planning. Today, none of our towns has a proper, scientifically built landfill site. Tonnes of wastes are dumped in open places. All kinds of wastes – agricultural, industrial, clinical and municipal... Read the story »
Erase ‘McKinsey plans’
22 January 2010
Of late, confusion over McKinsey consultancy in Bhutan has pushed the DPT government’s plans into the background. The government has now come to realise, perhaps too little too late, that the confusion is of its own making. Even six months after the international consultancy firm came to the country, little about its work was made public. It may not have been a cover-up, but apart from what the media... Read the story »
Want teachers, good ones
15 January 2010
For all its novel ideas, our education system needs some more thinking to do. It should begin by recognizing the fact that ideas, however good they are, are not a panacea for all the challenges on the ground. Any education system is only as good as the people who man it. And teachers are the lynchpin of any education system. But there is the rub. Our graduates do not look at teaching as a good career... Read the story »
These mean education, indeed
8 January 2010
As the 13th annual education conference ended yesterday, a number of important issues had been discussed or highlighted. The four-day conference drew unusually special attention this year, especially because of the GNH impetus the education system had received lately. In the true spirit of GNH, this year’s education conference brought to light many strikingly new issues in line with infusing GNH... Read the story »
Looking back
1 January 2010
Today, we are on the threshold of a new year. As we stand between two years, the old and the new, there is so much to look back on and look forward to. The past year has sorely tested our national capacity for solidarity and cohesion. In rapid succession, nature has painfully made us poorer by many promising lives and properties. Homes, seats of learning, and places of worship have been severely hit.... Read the story »
Loading ...Zakar for Friday March 12 2010
28th Day of the 01st Month - Iron Male Tiger Year
Auspicious for: Carrying out daily chores and offerings.
Inauspicious for: Construction of new ten-sung, conducting consecration and blessing ceremonies, lue-cho, starting construction of houses, sowing seeds, planting flowers, entering new houses, shifting houses, calling upon superiors, starting business, doing charity work in the name of the deceased, taking death body out of the house, paying grain debts and undertaking a long journey.
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