Recklessness, thy name is surely not ‘Change’

BW&Gray

Surely, there is so much gained from the glorious process of modern development, but let’s also do an inventory of the losses. Let’s start with the highly alarming cases that has an all too heavy undertone of social malaise made worse by an aggressively urbanizing trend in motion.

A mindless homicidal trend, it seems has exploded in the society with all the pent-up energy of a time bomb. Consider these incidents peaking on the crime graph.

A 32 year old man was stabbed to death by his cousin, a 27 year old in the course of an argument on Tuesday. The suspect is believed to have a history in using illegal substances.

A 50 year old taxi driver was found murdered brutally alongside a stream on the way to RTC in Thimphu, his body riddled with multiple stab patterns. It is potentially confirmed that a wrong turn in a taxi fare negotiation sessions is the reason for the deathly outcome.

Another 50 year old man is dead after he is hit by a Maruti Alto in Paro. The driver who was driving under the influence (of alcohol) was detained by the police.

And there’s the homicidal murder case at Central Plaza where a 29 year old man was killed in cold blood and then thrown off the balcony of the five storey building. The incident was the first to be called a ‘clear case of homicide’ by police. No points awarded in being the first, but it has certainly spiraled things in motion.

The deceased was a child of divorce and generally hopped from one relative’s to another’s, and had no fixed address in life. He was also in the past detained by police in a drug abuse case.

Divorced parents, drug-abusing child, late night partying youths (good lot of them heavily drunk, or intoxicated with this and that substance), reckless drivers flouting road rules, drivers drinking while driving, jobless youth with no productive avenues to invest their excess time and energy – its all a web of events that eventually germinates the social ills in a long line of robberies, gang fights, drug abuse, murder cases, suicides and broken families.

Roads spread from east to west and north to south, automobiles big and small decorate the highways while buildings tall and grand keep growing in numbers. The concrete jungle flourishes with all its tributary elements, but in the middle of all these, people become less and less sensitive to each other; communication becomes more and more disembodied (with gadgets replacing people).

Safely said, everyone needs to perform better, as at the authority and policy level similarly at individual household levels.

Published as column for Business Bhutan on June 27, 2015

BW & Gray or Black, White & Gray is a column published in the Business Bhutan and solely tagged with the pieces written by this Author.

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The basic need to fine-tune

BW & Gray

- The basic need to fine-tune - 

Presentation is very important but it seems living up to words is not. Preaching from atop high horses is grand, but falling off it painfully is not grandly in consideration.


Growing up in the country, every individual does so listening, taking in and also making attempts to practice the high-held religious and cultural values. The story line on this has however and of late turned awry.


Take this not-so-distant incidence for example:


The government’s supposedly ‘never-intended’ plan for slaughter houses was in any case taken as confirmed by the citizenry. Passionate arguments shooting rapid from all corners were a highly appreciable demonstration. National sentiments unanimously pooled in with no apparent need for orchestration/synchronization. Under different situations, for such overwhelming unity, the presence of an individual or institution championing this or that cause is always mandatory.


GNH-values empowered arguments and high-held religious-values-backed reasons at the time took center stage to stop the imminent. Even with such unanimity, the movement was getting diluted even as it was making pace. A chief reason happened to be the hypocrisy of one’s affinity to the very thing under protest.


Plainly put, try recollecting just freshly (with the auspicious month’s end) how meat stalls were crowded with buyers and how stocks got swept clean almost as fast as they could be replenished.


Now, what is that? An enactment to cancel out the previous enactment. It is exactly the swashbuckling knee-jerk reaction we move into without second thoughts soundly cemented.


Same can be said about how Buddists in a Buddhism-practicing country persistently continue to (literally) rob Buddhist values. In just over two years past, 586 sacred structures (565 chortens and 21 lhakhangs) from across the country were vandalized and robbed of their precious nangtens.


Just desserts have followed the acts, but punitive measures aren’t exactly what solves issues. While the law may pick up steam clamping down on matters, it is essentially every respective citizens’ designated role to do their bit.


Educating minds always helps.

Published as column for Business Bhutan on June 20, 2015

BW & Gray or Black, White & Gray is a column published in the Business Bhutan and solely tagged with the pieces written by this Author.

- Mind your heads -

Black, White & Gray   - Mind your heads -

What goes into the head is equally important as what goes into the stomach. Keeping a watch on lifestyle ailments is very important, but on the other hand, protecting the brain is also priority, period.


It is also worth the mention that this write-up is not entirely a protest against up-keeping an efficiently functioning small intestine.


Most of us watch what enters the stomach staying wary of ‘tasting powder.’ dangerously ‘happy hour’ sessions or the ills of smoking, be it first or second hand. So, why not protect the head too?


In these times of fast-evolving professional landscapes and an even faster changing mindscapes (thanks to the in-the-minute and on-the-web deluge of information and technology. What the eye sees and the brain picks up is increasingly breeding the need for segregation into ‘useful’ and ‘useless.’


This little shining forethought is most applicable to all minds; young and old alike.


The cyberspace is vast and limitless; there is no end to answers it can provide or generate, should one be querying on a topic. It also most veritably imposes on every person regardless of their willingness or unwillingness - the effects and after-effects of its contents.

Hence, the need arises for double confirmation.


The result is a population that is ‘information-overloaded’ with at most times very little of it proving useful in the daily attempts to excel at work or simply pushing forward life.


Enter the new age behemoth called the social media. Its introduction has further enhanced exchange and consumption of online information. While it does have added benefits, its development has also been instrumental in creating new layers of complexity for a world already overwhelmed with gadgets, gizmos and their applications.


Filtering what we decide to invite into our heads should receive importance, now more than ever. First and foremost, there is an unavoidable need to protect the young minds from swaying into a domain that never consistently stays comfortingly-familiar.


Secondly the society needs to be shielded too, from the negatives of these new age developments. Some highly damaging instances have already played their part in damaging reputations and spreading ill-will.

The transfer of ‘very personally-shot videos’ behind closed doors using social apps like WeChat on smart phones was an alarming development for a society not previously used to such shockers. Likewise, making enjoyment out of sharing pictures of suicide victims and crime scene horrors also began to raise its ugly head.


The law increased vigil on this, taking measures to deter future incidents and things do seem quiet for now on the front.

However, nothing beats educating the masses, a cue duly taken by the relevant authorities.

Written and Published as a Column in Business Bhutan on June 13, 2015 

Black, White & Gray is a column published in the Business Bhutan and solely tagged with the pieces written by this Author.

The long and short of it

The economic benefits from the tourism industry many say, are only next to the number one contributor - the Hydropower projects that hold the most important place in the heart of policies. Some even go as far to say, the tourism sector is one area which is near-effortless in being what it is for the nation.

This is the fairly supported truth, the whole truth and the absolute truth surrounding the two major national activities.

Well, maybe not exactly in its entirety, if discussions at the National Council are taken as any serious gauge of standards.

While hydropower was presented not entirely in the easily-accorded atmosphere of glitz and glamor that it is accustomed to, the tourism industry was punched full of loopholes that required urgent attention, should it be sustaining as a potential national economic activity.

The lack of a serious and comprehensive policy presented as the Achilles heel is responsible for curtailing details of growth in the sector and therefore it remained a factor that called for attention.

An up-to-date study of policies past and present is soundly recommended by the house of review and is exactly what seems to be the need of the hour under prevailing circumstances.

Complexity in procedures as mentioned by the NC could also do with some generous simplification to complement and encourage more numbers.

At present the details of daily minimum tariff, FIT charges, surcharges and discount coupled with fiscal policy issues on foreign currency and maintenance of dollar account, taxation policy and revenue recording are highlight areas that could cause more of loss than gain in the potential industry, if changes are not suitably made.

The top-foreign exchange grossing industry has also forever rested on the policy shelves to be taken on a cross-benefits tour nationwide.

While government efforts are of course visible in the home-stay or farm stay visits it promotes rurally toward the east, more initiatives does need to come up even for the south side of the nation should they become areas of interests.

And for all that, the actions don’t come into focus unless the dice of policy rolls.

Coming to the hydropower mission, vision and activity, if the chips are down on an activity (where all the chips have been placed), then there is nothing but room for pondering on that.

An NC member was right to point out that when the 10,000MW project has been confirmed to miss its 2020 deadline, it definitely doesn’t sound good as most government plans and projects lay hinged on the success of the giant project.

Apparently there is need to explore alternatives keeping fresh in mind the impact it will have on the nation’s economy.

Significant details of faulty detailed project reports (DPR) presented during the NC session also brings into picture the need to either train in-country officials better in preparing the reports on which an optimum percentage is spent in terms of cost, or hire international experts from such agencies as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Published as Editorial for Business Bhutan on May 30, 2015