Dechen, New Beginning

In April I shared a story of a lost girl called Dechen. I called her lost girl because her father never found her. Perhaps he never came looking for her. Barely 9, it was Dechen who went looking for her father who abandoned her after the demise of her mother. She parted with her brother too. She couldn't find them. But she found many families who wanted to keep her as their babysitter. At the end of her futile search she finally landed up with a family that took her to a village in Paro where she spent the over six years.

After discovering the whereabout of her uncle in Thimphu she left Paro. The joy of finding her blood relatives soon faded in the babysitting tug-of-war. She got herself into a construction job and married a co-worker to have a family of her own. She thought that would be the beginning of a good life but the young couple lost their first child and her husband lost his job after returning from his study leave. They took a loan from a friend and it haunted them every month. Dechen just earned enough to pay the monthly interest of 10% while the principle amount of Nu.43,000 kept them sleepless.

That was when I wrote her story in an attempt to find her brother and seek help from kind individuals to free the young couple from the debt. We vaguely heard that her brother was in Mongar but couldn't establish any communication with him. After I published that article I had to meet a member of her 'Paro family' who wasn't so happy. But I explained to them that I was not interested in starting what could be a very ugly legal battle.

I received a few messages from people willing to help Dechen so I called her debtor and tried negotiating with them. By then Nu.41,000 was already paid in interest and they stilled demanded full principle of Nu.43,000. I explained how 10% per month was insane, because legally allowed interest rate can't be more than 15% per annum while theirs came to 120% per annum. I begged them to humanly consider the couple's plight. I offered to pay Nu.30,000 to close the chapter because I got some people to offer that help. The debtor rejected the offer.

Then I asked the ruthless loanshark to take the matter to the court. They, like all loansharks, confidently accepted that because they have all the paperworks to eyewash even the court of law. We lost the case in Dzongkhag court. We couldn't prove to the court that it was a loan taken at 10% per month. We went to High Court and we still lost the case. I knew we would lose because the smart loanshark had all the tools to fool the court. Despite knowing that we still went ahead only to buy us time. I needed time to look for help.

For the last five months I have kept updating on the court proceeding to a Bhutanese lady well-wisher, by the name Tshering Choden, living in New York who offered to help Dechen right from the beginning. And I wrote to my friend Ugay Wangmo also working in New York to help. When the final verdict came I informed Tshering Choden and she offered to send Nu.12,000. Her cousin and husband came to my place to drop the money and meet Dechen and her husband.

My friend Ugay Wangmo immediately started fundraising among her friends in NY, like she always did and sent me Nu.22,100.

Yesterday, 26th September 2016, Dechen's husband handed over Nu.34,500 to their debtors in the presence of court officials and close the chapter to two years of sleeplessness.

I wish to thank Tshering Choden for being their from the beginning and giving me confidence, without your assurance we could have never dare to go to the court. Dechen and her husband are so grateful to you. I have shown your picture to them. Thank you.

I wish to thank my dear friend Ugay Wangmo for being my saviour for countless number of times. Dechen and her husband will always remember you for your kindness. They send their prayers to you and your friends Quen Tsho, Star Lhamo, Finso Om, Phub Gyem, Tshering Dolkar and Tshering Pem for giving them a new beginning. Thank you.

Ugay's fundraising Sheet

Dechen's Husband formally joined Bhutan Toilet Org after months of internship.

*I want to thank my wife for pushing me every day to get this done. I wish you peaceful sleep too now.

Sorry State of Lhakhang Karpo and Merciful Ap Chundu

Haa doesn’t have a Dzong, Lhakhang Karpo is still on the ground, Prime Minister is from Haa, Foreign Minister is in the court, and wrathful Ap Chundu is still merciful.

Pic Courtesy: BBS.bt

Who cares about a Dzongda using Dzongkhag DCM for private purpose, in fact we always thought higher officials could do that because they have always done that. Lynpo Rinzin Dorji should just stop lying and face the consequences because everybody knows he is lying about the ‘emergency’ and playing with words in the law book to suit him. Though it's for the court of law to decide how serious it is.

I am more disappointed that one of the holiest Lhakhang in the country is torn down with a promise of better future but became a playground of corruption and left in that pathetic state for ages under his leadership. And I am dismayed that he had been busy transporting his ten truckloads of timber in emergency while his efficient leadership could have given the Lhakhang a glorious reconstruction it deserved.

Question also has to be asked about how so much timber could be taken from Haa by one person. Haa has become a timber heaven, legally or illegally. Timbers are transported away during the day and smuggled during the night. Once a thick forest above my village now looks like a park with few trees. Water sources are drying up and people think the time has come, they don’t know it’s because the trees are gone.

We Haaps also enjoy a certain annual income called “Khapsang Paysha” Which translates to ‘Profit Money’. It comes from the IMTART for all the trees they have taken from our Dzongkhag in a year. When I was a child, I remember receiving Nu.512 as Khapsang Paysha, which was huge those days. So there go our trees.

What are trees when people won’t even spare the revered abode of gods and deities. Lhakhang Karpo is more than just an ordinary temple for people of Haa, where we don’t have a Dzong. Haa Tshechu is performed there and now it has been a messed up construction site. It’s emotionally damaging. Lhakhang Karpo is also considered the abode of the mighty Ap Chundu and I don’t know how he allowed all this to happen.

This seemed to have taken its toll on the monks too. It’s rather easier to look for snow leopards on the mountains than to get one monk from Lhakhang Karpo to perform rituals. If by luck or connections you get a few monks in the morning consider yourself the luckiest if they don’t abscond by midday. What type of monks practices such rowdy livelihood?

One thing leads to another and nothing good seems to be happening in and around Lhakhang Karpo. It’s supposed to be a national heritage and not a newspaper headlines every week for all the wrong reasons. Therefore, I pray to Ap Chundu, the mighty protector of the nation to unleash his wrath and settle everything in his way.

"Robbing the Country Blind"- Beyond English Lesson

"Robbing the country blind" was a figure of speech that Druk Phunsum Tshogpa took literally. Over the past months many people including Dasho Benji himself gave the party several English lessons. This case became so popular that the whole nation would by now know the meaning of the figure of speech, but as a matter of fact, no one will ever use it, especially on Facebook.

Opposition Leader with Dasho Benji- Photo Courtesy: RSPN Website

Beyond the English what lessons did we learn?

Individually, we must be warned that we can't just say anything against anybody if we can't substantiate. You should be more careful if you are a prominent figure in the society. Your words can be interpreted in many ways. And most importantly we should know freedom of speech has limits, which is not defined.

On the contrary, what Dasho Benji did was a very democratic example to the so many young followers he has on social media. He is illustrating how to speak up without shying, and most importantly he was showing us that we need not be anonymous to speak up boldly. But what DPT did to Dasho will have very deep impact on the emerging culture of social dialogue. People will never take chances and we may always resort to speaking anonymously.

Druk Phunsum Tshogpa, as a party should have never bothered about such petty comments because this is politics. They should focus on bigger goals of nurturing democracy in the country rather than giving suicidal threats from time to time. Their very nature of going off-focus lost them 2013 election, where instead of talk about what they will do they spent the whole campaign period talking and laughing about what the other party was going to do.

While it's easy to file a defamation case, just as freedom of speech has no well defined boundary, defamation doesn't have shape too. Freedom of speech doesn't necessarily end where defamation begins. The thin line between the two is very flexible. Therefore, now Dasho Benji's lawyer is charging DTP for "infringe upon the fundamental rights of an individual, which is guaranteed by Constitution.” He goes on for 13 pages where international examples of how political parties can't sue individual were cited. In a surprising backfire, after failing to convince the party that 'robbing the country blind' was a figure of speech, Dasho Benji is now substantiating his Facebook comments by digging out the ugly past, which could cost the party Nu.75 million. Party shouldn't have cornered the cat.

6 December, DTP will present their argument and the case will go on for sometime. Opposition will lose so much in this case- from time, attention to their real job, public support and perhaps Nu.75 million. 

Who Should Win?

If DTP wins, freedom of speech will be under question. There will be lesser people daring to say anything openly. There will be lots of anonymous users on social media. The very foundation of democratic dialogue will be dead.

If Dasho Benji wins, then it will lead to more social dialogues, not personal attacks. People who are hiding behind the mask will slowly come out in the open without fear. DPT will need a loan of Nu.75 million to drink their own ara. 

What's Mongar Court's Message to Schools in Bhutan?

Mongar Court has sent Ministers to jail and therefore a principal is no big deal. The judgement on the Gyalposhing land scam case sent a strong message. I don't know if it was a fair judgement but even if it was not at least everybody took a good message home. But with the principal's case there are several messages coming out. Even if the judgement was the fairest possible, the impact on the society could be unprecedented. The expected message to be taken is that corporal punishment is intolerable in schools, but there are hundreds of principals out there who are affected by the news. They must be hurt, they must be questioning and must be realizing that this could happen to them for just doing their duty.

By duty I am not saying that lashing students is their duty, their duty is to run the school well. Running the school means dealing with hundreds of young children, some of whom doesn't have sense of direction. The easiest thing to do would be to let it be. Let students do what they like, don't play parents, don't play police, don't play counselor, don't play judge and jury, don't just give a damn. Just go to the class and teach the curriculum. If there is an accident call the ambulance, if there is a fight call the police, if someone does drugs send them to jail, if there is a relationship among students call their parents and let them get married. But then school is more than that, every school has the moral duty to give every child a meaningful life.

They deserve to learn through mistakes, they deserve to stand corrected. No school will go lashing every troublesome child, but sometimes some children really need serious dealing because otherwise they are going to shatter their own dreams. Dealing with such students is no principal's favorite event. Every morning several students have to be summoned to the principal's office with different cases ranging from quarreling, stealing, fighting, smoking, drinking, doping, gang fighting... some students have their files filled with 'last warnings'
Some students ask for suspension because they want to skip school and have fun, and some even don't mind being terminated. A good principal's job is to make sure that these children don't leave school. The tempting world outside the school seems to care a lot but when these children are on their own they will realize that nobody cares about them, sometimes no even their own parents. We in the school know so much about the real world out of school and there we don't want our children to go unprepared.

I'm against corporal punishment and I'm more against mental punishment. We have dealt with children who would ask for any punishment except calling their parents. They say they will be thrown out of the house and removed from the census. When students are caught in gang fight and drug cases they beg the school to punish them any way the school likes but not to send them to the police. But we consider ourselves very wise and try the western style, we are expected to deal with them in a civilized behavior- yes we are expected to send them to jail! But we don't, we punish them, we watch them, we see them become better with few lashes. If they were sent to jail they would have never seen this life they are now living.

Principal in Jail

Mongar principal could have easily called the parents of the junior students and ask them to file a report with the police and arrest the senior for bullying and harassment. This could have saved so much of school's time and could have easily spared himself from all the problem. But the school took the responsibility to deal with the case, advice the boy and asked him to apologize. The boy took it lightly and went on to bully the junior further. The principal wired the boy and perhaps the boy may learn to fear the school rules now but the parents took the principal to the court and they won the case. Clap, clap, clap, their boy has leaned a good lesson in life, that his parents will watch his back at all times and he could go on misbehaving.

Thousands of young students across the country have heard the news that even a principal could be jailed for beating students. They must be feeling excited about it. These experimental young minds are made little fearless. And thousands of teachers must be reconsidering their roles as teachers, as caring teachers. Not to mention the hundreds of principals. If hundreds of students begin to revolt against school and take the principals and teachers to court hence I won't be surprised, I would thank Mongar court. Whatever is legally right need not necessarily be morally right.

By this I am not saying beating up students in any way is right, not all teachers and principals are as caring and good, some have cases of sexual molestation and some could be naturally violent against students for no good reason, some might thrash young children like their enemies; in such cases justice should prevail.

But we cannot go all american overnight to sue every little whip in the school just because there is a law against it. Some parents have natural court-going tendency and teachers are easy prey. We need protection too, we need legal wing in the ministry to protect us. Our job is getting more sensitive by the day and the more seriously we engage in our duties, the more vulnerable we become. We love our students, we care for them. Even in a family with two children parents resort to beating sometimes, we are family of hundreds of children.