A proposal for Face Book Discipline for Bhutanese in social media.

Please avoid using portrait of the revered Kings as fb profile picture if your intent is only spewing out personal attacks and insults. And avoid using the sacred Jarog Dongchen as a fb identity even if you are an Officer posted in Israel ( Golan Heights ) under UN through Bhutan Armed Forces. The sacred mystic bird sanctifies and empowers the golden crown of Bhutan. It is an act of sacrilege to spew out personal venom and prejudices under the identity of the national sacred symbol of Authority and Defender.

To mean well and demonstrate love , it would be fine for example to have the 4th King portrait as your profile picture on 11th November, 2015 and pay appropriate tributes to celebrate the historic day. It would be appropriate to adopt your identity as the sacred Jarog Dongchen if the Country is at war and you intend to pray and support the Royal Person and the Armed Forces.

At other times to fake loyalty and abuse other fellow Bhutanese, your usage of the Royal Portrait or the sacred name of Defender of the Kingdom represented by the mystic bird, you are committing an act of mockery of sacred institution.

With deep respects to so many Bhutanese fb members who use social media for sharing happiness, events and express opinions/ views / information  of substance.

Politics and Politicians are strange bed fellows.

Today three Parties combined leaders Nitish, Lalu and Sonia addressing political rally in Patna. Can the three withstand the Modi flood in the coming Bihar election? The once arch enemies now forming united front to fight off BJP and for self survival. Its a kind of make or break situation for the three beleaguered Leaders of shrinking party strength. Political scene in India is undergoing dramatic revolution.

Prophecies overshadowed by live deeds.

There is a rush by self proclaimed soothsayers or modern historians to authenticate the ecclesiastical origin of the birth of His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck. Forgive me but if you are looking to justify his greatness look no further than the feats the King has accomplished during his 34 years of reign. He achieved the qualities of the Triple Gem through selfless dedication of mind, soul and body in honouring the duty of a King to the people and the Kingdom.  For me prophecies can apply to many figures and incarnates to any favourably selected candidates but credit of great deeds can be attributed to the only enlightened leader who performs them live.

What's with Bhutan's population figures?

Several years ago it was said Bhutan's population figure was 500000 ( half a million ). Lately it is said to be around 720000 ( seven hundred twenty thousand ). A jump of 44% in how many years ? Is this possible when National Statistic Bureau of Bhutan claims that Bhutan's population growth is about 1.3% ?

An accurate population figure with proper growth rate figure is necessary for proper planning in various sectors. I thought Bhutan has a far greater number of young citizens but now it seems the population ages by 6% and grows by 1.3% so in fact the opposite seems to be the reality. It seems Bhutan is not far from the population imbalance of developed countries.

The controversies sparked by and around Central Monastic Body of Bhutan.

2015 seems to be a year of Dratsang woes. Several months back,  4 venerable Lopens of Dratsang sent a condemnation letter to the Prime Minister regarding the project," Slaughter House."  The sting was not that Dratsang naturally objected to killing of animals but that the Lopens chose to directly challenge a political policy of the Government. The incident was surprisingly well handled by the Government by denying the existence of such a project tiled " Slaughter House" but continuing with the policy initiatives to reduce meat import. At the same time the Dratsang also seems to have brought about some inner administrative personnel changes at its Secretariat perhaps to prevent similar political gaffe in the future or fix accountability of the ill advised move.

This time the Dratsang is furiously trying to put down a kind of wildfire news about an impending earthquake that was instigated by an ecclesiastical  written order from the Dratsang requiring all 205 geogs of Bhutan to conduct Prayer Rituals to ward off national or was it natural calamities which most people presumed to be a major earthquake. There was not much room for other speculations. The public had been badly shaken by Nepal earthquakes in April this year and constant talk of the region's vulnerability to more quakes. Moreover other natural calamities like landslides and floods are part of monsoon season that did not warrant such unprecedented precautions.

I do not know why the Dratsang took an unprecedented step to ask all 205 geogs to perform Prayer Rituals between 25th August to 8th September,2015. This was never done before. Even during the ULFA
BODO clean up campaign such an order was not issued. Quite sometime back I did hear that all religious institutions led by the 20 Dzongkhag Rabdeys were performing Prayer Rituals for the Nation and these Prayers I thought had culminated on 13th August coinciding with 29th day of the 6th Bhutanese month with a Tor Jhab which is the Chasing Away Misfortune Prayer Ritual. This 205 geog Prayer Ritual order seems to have come after that.

His Holiness the 70th Jhe Khenpo Trulku Jigme Choedra is on a kind of leave of absence for meditation pursuit. And the venerable Dorji Lopen has been officiating the duties of Jhe Khenpo since the 1st day of Bhutanese 12 month that coincides with 31st of January,2015.

The most learned venerable Dorji Lopen may be more into the religious duty of the Jhe Khenpo than that of administrative affairs. So very possibly the highly accomplished spiritual master may not have been the initiating source of the slaughter house letter or the 205 geog letter. And in the last almost 2 decades of active reign as Jhe Khenpo, His Holiness Trulku Jigme Choedra never directly condemned the temporal policies of the Government. Even when the monks of all categories were denied voting rights, His Holiness maintained a holy silence. And till date His Holiness had never to my recollection issued an order for the 205 geogs to perform Prayer Ritual. The religious duties of Prayers were always for the religious institutions.

The Central Monastic Body of Bhutan is deeply revered as an holy institution of national faith. However, within the ecclesiastical enclave, internal politics could also be a part of such an ancient part of its existence. And the kind of presently  seemingly existing vacuum at the top hierarchy could provide opportunistic displays of divergent thoughts. It can also be a sign of divided house though the two top highly respected holy figures may not even be aware of such politics.

Whatever may be causing these spiritual hiccups, I feel deep unease about the kind of premonition that His Holiness is alleged to have sensed. Maybe through divinity, maybe through dreams or disturbances during meditations. One thing for sure is that it is not in the personal nature of His Holiness to make public forecasts of an impending earthquake or any other specific national or natural disaster even if he is made aware of such through some divination means. Such an holy soul does not cause helpless panic among the populace. However, as a responsible Guru and as a duty of a Jhe Khenpo, His Holiness would do all he can to avert or reduce the impact of any such possible disaster upon the nation and the people. Therefore , any religious advice that directly comes from His Holiness should be simply conveyed in its actual wording form without any kind of add-ons and most diligently adhered to by the Dratsang and the nation. We are just into the seventh month of Female Wood Sheep year and there is more to go. May the constant Prayer and Rituals ward off any impending national, natural or human disasters during the remaining period of this pivotal year.

Thimphu Jigme Namgyel School Sports Day

It was Saturday 22nd August,2015. The adjoining football ground of Motithang High School was filled with students of Jigme Namgyel. It had been a drizzling early morning that reluctantly calmed as the national anthem filled the air. A welcome address by the very professional Madam Neten was followed by few words on the Sports Day by the Chief Guest and then the sportsmanship events unfolded following a beautiful inaugural dance.

For around 3 hours the mass of students filled the huge ground as different groups demonstrated their sporting talents in races of 100 to 600 mtrs. sprints and relays with younger kids engaged in hotly contested games of ballon bursting, ball passing, buildings blocks to vegetable speed shopping etc.. It was tug of war event that got everyone's bated attention.

What really impressed me was the full and complete participation of all students and teachers in the various categories of sporting events. By all means it was truly an authentic Sports Day for the whole School. Even the Parents had the opportunity to actively participate in a game of Finding the Partner. Too late but at least yesterday I found out who I should have married. No wonder the flame of love had refused to tamper down during all these decades of marriage.

The highlight was the distribution of a whole lot of array of prizes. Mostly of the day and some of past days different School House performances and winners of other conducted contests. The pride and the glow on the thousand young faces simply marked the success and the importance of the School Sports Day. Three Hurrahs for JNLSS ! ! !

The well organised but nevertheless a hectic event ended with a vote of thanks and Tashi Lebey. My thanks and admiration for all the hard works that teachers and students had put in the organisation and conducting of the Sports Day. It is in the fields of sports where students and teachers alike pick up the qualities of leadership, understanding of human nature and optimise true strength of cooperation and spirit of aspirations.

The Sports Day is the final culmination of so many afternoons of practise days and therein lies the art of perseverance and road to perfection.  Wholesome education is the art of learning from text books in the classrooms and art of competing in the sports fields where a child learns to win with grace, understand team works and assuage loss with next time determination to win. There is always some reasons to smile about and laugh around.

On porno clips and hilarious social satires:

Main stream media can have an effective impact in promoting healthy tolerance to otherwise hurriedly tarred and feathered social aspects of copulation activities and social satires. It is not possible to eradicate sex happenings and social jibes from the web of a human society. Sexual excitements and social jokes even black humour are natural part of a virile and diverse social cohesive fabric.  Accept that life has many ingredients otherwise how could life be interesting ,treasured and problematic at the same time. And also accept that communities are crookedly bonded otherwise it would be devoid of crowd and diverse flavour.

Black mailing with sex video clips taken unaware or forced upon sex partners and child pornos must be immediately and harshly dealt with and adequately penalised.

Regarding other types of pornography, what's in a name or nationality when adult pornography is all over the social network. Just because the participants/players are Bhutanese, there need not be extra alarm. Police have so many other priorities to prevent or handle more harmful social and economic threats and crimes such as reckless drunk drivings, drug problems, domestic violence, thefts, embezzlements, rapes and murders.  And in any case, moral policing is categorised as socially unhealthy in many parts of the democratic world that recognise certain parameter of human rights and social behaviours.

Very often there are loud cries of indignation when adult bed room activities are shared in social network. The complainants are not the affected victims and could be of characters less than puritanical in their personal deeds and thoughts. Such complainants are seldom the image in private that they purport to publicly convey. Therefore, it is advisable to exercise caution before law enforcement agencies respond to exaggerated prudish views.

Social satires that are making the rounds recently ( if it is about daughter of Haa and son of East ) are more hilarious than hurting. I thought it brought people closer. Many shared these simply out of good laugh and hilarity of it all. It is time that the society wake up to reality. Goodness and evilness exist among all races, religion and regions.  Did Ulab Leki cause social disharmony when he imitated a lhotsampa farmer or Phurba Thinley jokes on Haaps ?

There are few holier than thou publicity seeking individuals who campaign in the name of harsher penalties and more restrictive social laws.  Little do they care about democracy and tolerance for diverse human nature. The Government need to take a cautious approach to signature campaigns. Today it may be about some moralistic social issues and tomorrow it could be some political issues. I personally suspect that repressive motives drive educated and influential public figures to seek more restrictive laws and heavier penalties against social behaviours.

What could be more damaging than adult pornography and social tease satires may be political and religious sentiments expressed by regional groups or individuals. Even there I would not advocate dictatorial approaches. These regional or group protective sentiments need to be dealt with cautious attention and democratic value maturity. Thankfully such narrow social attitudes are few and seldom in Bhutan.

Promoting and developing self respect for existing laws are more conducive to society at large than blind search for iron clad fisted Iaws.  I am relieved that the Chief of Bhutan Police expresses such a noble concept in calling upon all to respect the laws already in place.

There are adequate laws and penalties regarding  issues of drug abuse, pornography, domestic abuses and violence, tobacco usage or reckless motorists. More hefty financial fines and prison terms do not eradicate social ills. What is lacking is deeper respect for laws already in place and regard for the security and sensitivity of the other person. There is a huge vacuum in national endeavour in promoting essential social values with necessary tolerance and sense for general everyday kind of civic responsibilities. And these gaps need to be bridged gradually with intelligent approach not with hammer and sickle methods.

Fare well First Lady of India from West Bengal.

The first lady of India Madam Suvra Mukherjee wife of His Excellency President Pranab Mukherjee of India died this morning of 18thAugust,2015. There is never a convenient time for separation of two people who have spent near six decades together as partners through all kinds of life's weathers. But a time does come and for the elderly Raahtrapati Bhawan residents the 1st couple of India that hour was at 10: 51 am India time. The glorious  golden sunset era of the two Bengal Lovers at Rashtrapati Bhawan has lost forever the partner who epitomised the light and warmth of home, the anchor of marriage, love and family.

May Shrimatji's soul rest in peace and may this sudden void in the life of President Pranab Mukherjee be bearable hereafter. God Bless the bereaved 1st family of India.

The best of intentions could misfire. Please beware.

Health Ministry in Bhutan has been distributing medicines to schools to be given to students. The instructions are that these medicines are expensive and make certain that students consume the tablets.

Bhutanese have a lot to thank for free medication and healthcare. Therefore, it is not right to examine the teeth of the gift horse. However, the tablets causes side effects for some students.

Several months back it was said to be deworming medicine and today it was said to be iron tablet. Whatever these were both caused side effects of painful headache and that churning motion of aggravating vomiting push in the chest cavity area. Such sudden pain could be dangerous for tender hearts of kids.

I had to pick up my grandson from school on the two occasions upon being informed that he was under pain. Today I came across a mother whose son also suffered the same symptoms. My grandson is a studious student. He stood first in his class in the mid term exams. Thus definitely not in his character to bunk class at the slightest excuse.

After the first incident, I had told him to bring home whatever tablet school gives so that he could take the same under responsible adult supervision at home.  But he says he could not do so because the Captain stood by to ensure that he took the tablet today.

Today I telephoned the Principal to notify him of the problem. And requested that in future not to force my grandson to take medicine in school but rather permit him to bring the same home where we can verify and give under proper supervision. I pray that the incident is not repeated.

It must be a bad or unfortunate coincidence but since the first tablet in school my grandson had developed pain in the head. The doctor said it was inner ear infection and he was hospitalised for 5 days with 6 hourly antibiotic injection course. A follow up reexamination a week later confirmed that the treatment had been effective. He has been recovering well and then today this had to again happen. It did scare me but by evening he got better. He will go to school tomorrow and I hope he stays well. He is a brilliant well behaved handsome boy. A jewel by any standard.  I am sure his past and present Teachers would testify to his such qualities. God forbid that he becomes victim of some trials.

My request to the School is to make my grandson learn his lesson even if you have to be a little harsh. But do not force him to take medicine because some medicines just do not seem to agree with his body constitution. And Health Ministry must be aware that blanket treatment of different age group and different stage of heath condition of students could result in few mishaps.

Another constitutional case in the offing? Not really !

When you read about the pros and cons of legal ramification on the case of Government exempting sales tax and custom duty on imported books, it is undoubtedly a breach of constitutional powers.

I have no reservation on the good intention of the Government towards supporting the cause of the Reading Year. Exemptions of sales tax and custom duties would reduce cost of imported books and possibly this would encourage more people to buy books and read. It is altogether a different unfortunate social trend that reading just is not a habit of most people especially the younger generation. But we have to try to promote reading culture.

The larger picture is the unilateral taxation power of the governing Political Party versus the constitutional power of the Parliament. If a Government can issue a blanket exemption then it should also be able to issue a blanket increase in sales tax and custom duties.

In the 1st constitutional case about taxation power of a Government, the Supreme Court ruled to the effect that such matters must be put up to the Parliament. And that any such financial powers granted to the Government under any Laws or Acts before the enactment of the Constitution are rendered impotent if found to be in conflict with the clauses of the Constitution.

Now we have two established facts:

1. The intention or reasons for exemption are pure goodness and therefore if the same had been put up to the Parliament, the proposal would have sailed through.

2. The Government on its own deciding even a time bound blanket tax and duty exemption is unconstitutional. In a case of national emergency, a Government could act first and seek Parliament endorsement later but this is not of national emergency nature.

So what happens here onwards:

1) In normal cases the Opposition would seek the Royal Permission to refer the case for a Supreme Court constitutional Hearing. But I have my doubts. Somehow, I get the feeling that a lot of the Opposition MPs would rather leave politics right now than continue representing as an Opposition Party of no political consequence. The Opposition may have raised the issue only for the purpose of highlighting the incongruity in the Bhutanese political system.

2) The Supreme Court could decide to be proactive and issue an advice directly or indirectly to the Government to have its decision endorsed by the Parliament. For example, the Supreme Court did indirectly state ( through a judicial officer speaking to media ) that ACC cannot takeover Lhakhang Karpo Case from OAG. Therefore, the ruling of Bench I of High Court on the appeal of ACC was a foregone conclusion. But again I have my doubts for various unspoken reasons, whether Supreme Court would take upon the Government as it had upon ACC. 

The end result would be another blow to democracy in Bhutan. Actually it is difficult to tell who in Bhutan wants democracy and who do not. The larger outside democratic forces thinks that every other nation should have a democratic system. But for Bhutanese especially the common people, democracy has had at best mixed sour and bitter ingredients. A taste that has thoroughly confused their tongues and stupefied their minds.

Welcome to the Kingdom of constitutional system.