Third Bhutanese Bloggers’ Conference

During the Annual Bhutanese Bloggers’ Dinner we unanimously decided to have the 3^rd Bloggers’ Conference on 6^th February in Thimphu considering the schedule of many members of the community. Bhutan’s alpha photographer and blogger Aue Yeshey Dorji took charge of the logistics. He showed us all how tough a taskmaster he was and how things were done; he pushed things so hard that we were ready a month ahead. This happened for the first time.

He not only had the venue ready but also the location map of the place, not just the menu but also the fund needed for all of it. The core team had only to get the four speakers ready and a moderator. The community co-founder Nawang P Phuntsho jokingly shared that he should first look for the moderator next time considering the difficulty he faced in getting blogger Nim Dorji to moderate.

With the opening remark by Rekha Monger the conference kicked of at 3pm in the RSPN conference hall. We had a cake cut to celebrate the birth of our Gyalsey. 

Chador Wangmo

The first speaker to take the stage was our very own Chador Wangmo, the author of La Ama. She shared about her journey to Langdorbi in Zhemgang to help the children of men who lost their lives in a boat accident. She said that she had only been the bridge between the charitable souls and the victims, but I know she has been more than that. Mother of three little children and jobless, Chador showed to us how possible it was if you really meant to help. Her project not only took care of basic necessities of the children there but also gave them their fair share of childhood with gifts of toys.

Amrit Subba

The blogger who went beyond his blindness and showed us wit and wisdom of life spoke on what it meant to be disabled in Bhutan. He made us laugh with his humors as he narrated the story of his life. He said that ‘Bhutan is a compassionate country for the disabled people to live in’. He has never suffered any sort of open discrimination but he lamented that our infrastructures were not at all accommodating. We hardly have buildings that have access to wheelchair let alone the streets and shops.

Yeshey Dorji

The star photographer, Aue Yeshey Dorji simply ran us through some of his best photographs and on each slide he stopped to tell us stories, either of the subject or the process. By the time he finished I was wondering if there would be any other Bhutanese who would have travelled the length and breadth, height and depth like he had done. Then I realized that he didn’t become him by luck.

During the question session he was asked how he could be so bold on his blog, to which he said, “ Since when did we have this feeling that writing the right thing would get us into trouble.” He however said that it’s important to research and get the facts straight.

Binu Creativedonkey

The final speaker was Binu Creativedonkey, one of the sweet naughty boys on social media who has thus far treated us with his instant wit and satires on almost every social subject. He runs three special blogs one being the satire blog called Shobnews.com. He began by insulting himself and then told us how satire was not one of the favorite subjects in Bhutan. He shared about how his satire on film industry cost him some contracts. He promised he would rock the hall next time because it was his first public appearance.

Dawa Knight

Just when we were about to wrap up Dawa Knight landed, four hours late for the conference. But over the phone he expressed his desire to do a standup comedy and that was exactly what we needed over the post conference drinks and dinner. Upon little persuasion he started his usual comedy, which I have heard hundreds of times. But with a mike in hand and facing the crowd he was magnificent. I laughed all over again.

Now we are seriously considering coming up with a YouTube Channel of Bhutanese satire and comedy with Dawa Knight and Binu Creativedonkey.

The most memorable part of the Bloggers’ conference is usually the social break after the conference where we get to meet the community members, take pictures, and share light moments. And because I am a night person and I bring my family along I don’t need to rush anywhere therefore I am usually the last person to leave the hall. I love the look on people’s face when I ask them to stay a little longer. It’s always Nawang, Che and Tharchen with me in the end. Dasho Sangay Khandu never missed any conference and would be the last guest to leave. He would kindly agree to drop off a carful of bloggers.

Acknowledgement

The conference was fully funded by five members of Rotary Club of Thimphu including Aue Yeshey Dorji himself. The partial support we received from BOB shall be used for next conference. The magnificent venue was provided for free by RSPN and their communication officer Pema Gyamtsho stayed throughout the conference to make sure we have the best of audiovisual and WiFi connectivity.

Bloggers Conference in Paro

The Second Bloggers Conference held in Paro College on 25^th October 2015 was a huge milestone for the Community of Bhutanese Bloggers. We were able to bring the event to a magnificent campus, get a notable sponsor and draw a decent crowd.

Venue: Paro College of Education

Sponsor: National Airlines Drukair

Supporters: iBest Institute and Bank of Bhutan

Speakers: Karma Choden, Dorji Wangchuk, Nima Dorji and me

Format: 15 minutes speech with presentation followed by 10 minutes Q&A for each speaker

 

Attendance 

The event took a special place in my heart because it happened in Paro, my home ground for the first time. Every other event, formal and casual, related to bloggers had happened away from me in the past and I had to travel the longest. This time everyone travelled except me. We had bloggers attending from Wangdue, Trongsa, Tsirang and of course mostly from Thimphu.

I was given to talk on Social Media. I got excited because it was something I use each day more than the restroom. It was my cup of tea but when I sat down to write my 15 minutes speech I realized my cup of tea had no bottom. It was like the black hole and still growing.  

Then I decided to confess my ignorance about the depth of the subject and talk about how an ordinary person could use it each day to enrich our lives and things around us.

But I didn’t surrender easily because even the unknown could be defined as unknown, so I gave a brief background on the ever growing power of social media.

“A few years ago, only privileged individuals on TV and Radio could talk to thousands of people at a time, and people who wrote in newspapers were read by thousands, as a teacher I had the privilege of speaking to an assembly of over 700 students once every two month when I was the teacher on duty (TOD) but other than that our usual conversations were between two persons or a small group.
 Today, in the age of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and of course blogging each one of us is as privileged as a newspaper journalist or a TV anchor. Any minute we can take out our phone and write something that will be read anywhere in the world by the time we get out of this hall.
 There is a new dimension to social media that wasn’t there in mainstream media, which is the ability for your audience to respond to you and share your content among their friends. This new dimension works like nuclear power, thus making it the most powerful form of media.
 Social Media gives ordinary persons like you and me the means to influence the world from our toilet seat using a mobile device that can be held in one hand and operated with a thumb. Social Media has given each one of us the power that we don’t fully understand yet. This world will be a great place if this power was given selectively to all the good people but the bad news is it is given to everybody. “

I categorized people on earth into four groups, because as is on social media we are no more divided by geographical boundaries:

1. The Users, people who use social media as tools to do good
2. The Abusers, people who abuse social media as weapons to cause harm
3. The Clueless, People who don’t know what they are doing on social media and therefore become the victim.
4. The offliners, People who are not on social media.

I then described myself as a user who has thus far made the best out of social media. I told stories of my blog, my Groups and Pages on Facebook that are geared toward enriching our social lives and spreading positive energy and I fondly talked about Bhutan Toilet Organization that began on Facebook.

The speaker before me, Ms. Karma Choden spoke about Leadership of Self, the foundation of which was the words of his majesty the king;

“What we need is not a Leader to lead the Masses – we need Leadership of the Self.”

“How does Leadership of the Self – being better human beings – translate to a better world? “

“No one should be left behind. This we must achieve without waiting for some great leader or genius who may or may not ever emerge – we should instead seek to do so, each of us, on our own.”

And when I spoke of social media as power in our hands I could easily relate the leadership of self as the guiding principle each time we deicide to hit the post button.

The third speaker Mr. Nima Dorji, a lawyer and blogger, spoke on the thin line that exist between the Right to Reputation and Right to Freedom of Speech -that is the law on defamation. This topic was something everyone on social media must know at this time and age, because we really must know how far to push our freedom of speech into other’s right to reputation.

The final presenter Mr. Dorji Wangchuk, a senior journalist, blogger, professor and activist, talked about his model of journalism—The Middle Path Journalism. He boldly declared that our media is directionless at the moment. The journalist trained in different parts of the world imported the models and therefore even in one media house we could see various forms of voices. He took us down the historical journey of development of media in different parts of the world including Bhutan and shared with us how media in each region were shaped by history; by colonialism, civil war, the world wars, the cold war, the industrial revolution, etc. He then asked which country’s model would work for Bhutan, the country with entirely different history and values. Following is what he shared about varying values and I think this is a food for thought for the media fraternity, and for the blogger community.

Ê Western Values = rights, justice, equality, liberty, freedom

Ê Western Civilization = Individual

Ê Eastern Civilization = collective

Ê Bhutanese Values = tha damtsi (Commitments), tsam tsay (Contentment), maang and Za Saang (Community/Family), Nyinzhay (Compassion/Empathy), Lay Jumdray (Cause/Effect)   

Hon’ble Sangay Khandu, MP in National Council from Gasa moderated the conference and he was someone who could add value to every talk. More than anything I hold the highest regard for the man for being there in every little event, no matter how far, and spent his valuable time with us, and at times even paying for our lunch (lol).

At Drugyel Dzong!

To make the event even more memorable we headed to Drukgyel Dzong in the afternoon and spend quality time talking about life and history, until it became so cold and dark. Except for a few Paro College students and me the rest of them had to travel back to Thimphu and as we parted we decided that between this and the next conference in 2016 we should have an Annual Dinner in Thimphu. All the members of CBB are invited. It shall be after December 17.

At Drugyel Dzong, with our invention- The lamp!