Yangthang Village Youth Club

My village Yangthang was connected by road half a century years ago but it didn't change us much, other than the occasional bus services people walked most of time. There was road but people didn’t have cars to use it. Twenty years ago electricity illuminated our village. The last two decades with road and electricity both couldn't quite transform my stubborn village. We remained backward in our ways of life and in our outlook to life.

The small generation of educated lot had to leave the village, and some of them who had strong influence over the village couldn't quite reconnect to the village realities, therefore fancied the idea of maintaining our village like a living museum- after all how much can they do during their week long annual visits? 

Over the years my generation of educated lot thrived and we were bigger in number but we too had to leave the village. Our village still remained a museum and we were mere annual tourists who only dreamt of bigger changes and better lives. We were disappointed but to our credit our tradition and our values were well preserved, we were harmless as much as we were helpless. 

Then the television made a grand entry. Few households that had TV became the popular hub of social gathering, our sleep pattern changed, our conversation lessened and overnight change became evident. It was at least serving a good purpose of giving people a common place and common subject to dwell on after their hard day's works until every house hold got their own TV sets. Then it isolated families. People stopped coming out, they talking about issues in Indian serial homes rather than issues at home and in the village. Younger generation showed lesser interest in the village affairs thereby risking the natural course of transition of tradition from one generation to another. 

Just when we thought the worst have happened the smartphones revolution began and this time it didn’t take long before the urban wind blew into the villages. With huge literate population living in the village the social lives became virtual just like in towns. That’s a dangerous trend invading the most potential generation in our village at the moment.

During the Launch

While it is tempting to force some solutions out of books, we must remember the classic egg breaking analogy which goes- if an egg is broken by outside force, life ends. If broken by inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from inside. We are more or less mere outsiders in our village and in their generation. If meaningful change has to happen it has to come from among themselves. We can only facilitate.

The youngest group

One of the significant facilitation was construction of the READ center in my village. It’s the first step toward an enlightened community. The facility is serving its purpose and beyond, and it’s continuously developed to suit the need of the community. It’s interesting to see how our people’s expectation from the READ center is changing and growing. At times they push the librarians to their wits end and thus we lost one librarian.

Electoral Education 

To ensure effective use of the facility and to address our growing issues, including taking responsibility of the center and other common spaces I have thought of a village youth club, which finally became a reality on the first day of Lomba. I named it Yangthang Village Youth Club. On the day of its launch we had 58 students, living and going to school from the village every day, registered as members. I am hoping this youth body, given the right conditions and opportunities, would identify and address our own local issues. I am also hoping that their unity will inspire and build harmony in the community and ensure better rural lives. Lopen Chimi Rinzin, a senior teacher and very steadfast member of the village agreed to lead the pack as the club master.

Youth goes to Poll

So far we received support from the following organization and individuals

1.     Rotary Club of Thimphu: A computer set for club works

2.    Deki Om: 45 pieces of club T Shirts

3.    Karma Yangzom: 45 pieces of club caps

4.    Dzongkhag Election office: In electing club captains.

The two individual donors are from our own village living away. Like them there are many successful folks living away from home that I hope will support the village through the club. I have received commitments from some friends for certain initiatives and I’m also looking forward to capacity building and life skills training for the members from READ Bhutan, VAST, BCMD, and YDF.

Some of the strategies outlined for the club are;

1.    Volunteerism in the Village

Yangthang Village Youth Club intends to serve the village community to address local issues and needs in the areas of health, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and socioeconomic development.

These activities include but are not limited to:

·      Conduct advocacy programs to promote health and hygiene in the village

·      Provide helping hands during cultivation and harvest

·      Take initiatives to manage village waste (behavioral change, waste segregation, decomposing, recycling)

·      Take ownership of common spaces in the village and initiate maintenance works to ensure the sustainability of the common spaces: Lhakhang, Archery ground, Electric fencing, Bridges, Chortens, Flood retention wall, Drainage, Road, Drinking water source, etc.

·      Volunteer and provide support during village events

·      Plan and undertake the building of small social infrastructures: Dustbins, Pit, Menchhu, Fencing, Wall, Rest House, Footpath, Water supply, etc.

·      Reforestation of barren land along the river

2.    Educational Enrichment

In addition to civic engagement, the Yangthang Village Youth Club also provides educational platforms that enrich the learning experiences of the youth members. These activities include:

·      Initiate a comprehensive village reading program

·      First Friday For Folk Tales: Invite a village elder to tell folk tales to children. Children will also attempt to rewrite the folk tales.

·      Sunday Reading Hour: One Sunday in a month, Children gather at the READ center to read for one hour together.

·      Sunday Book Talk: Another Sunday in a month, few selected children will talk about the books they read. Their reviews will be display on the wall for a month.

·      Initiate a youth mentorship program

Older youth members can provide mentorship to younger members in terms of academics and other areas of youth development

·      Initiate a Spiritual Life speakers program

Invite a local monk or nun to come speak to the youth once every month to explain some religious concept or lead a short prayer/meditation

3.    Youth Leadership

Lastly, the Yangthang Village Youth Club provides the youth members with the opportunity to learn key leadership skills through the club’s management and development. Club captains will be elected annually through standard electoral process. This not only enables the club members to practice the principles of democratic citizenship, but also enables the elected youth captains to step up and provide guidance and voice for the club members. All club members will also learn to raise and generate funds to support the club’s programs and sustainability.

Lastly, many of the club meetings and activities will be held in the READ Center in the Yangthang READ Center. The club members will be responsible for ensuring that the Yangthang READ Center facilities that they use are well-maintained, tidy, and well-utilized.

Democracy and Love Marriage

When I was invited to speak to Democracy Club by their club master Ms. Sangay Lhaden I was sure that the members would want to listen to anything but democracy. They have been listening to so much about it that any more theory would make them want to leave the club.

With Drukyul Decides I- Photo by Sangay Lhaden

I began by introducing the three signed books they received as gift from the author, Gyambo Sithey. The books are about everybody, everything, everywhere minus the rumors about the first two elections and the five defining years between them. If schools are seriously meaning to make differences through democracy club then they should consider investing in the books. I have shared this with Election Commission of Bhutan and perhaps the schools might receive it for free. Fingers crossed.

I was done with the books and now had to say something about the subject they have already heard too much, to many times. The following is the organized and edited version of my original random talk.

Democracy is like marriage, love marriage to be specific, you choose you own leader, I mean spouse. The courting and dating is the campaign period and finally you cast your vote one day without anyone's influence. The 100 days pledges go well in marriage but after a year you begin to see that the mole on her cheek is too big, that his snoring is very disturbing, that her nagging is not cute and then there will be nights you sleep angry, mornings you wake up sad and there are hundred little things you fight about, forgetting that you chose that person from among 7 billion people on earth.

But then one morning you say sorry and you love again, laugh again and everything works perfect. That's human. That's how real relationship works. You can't go on smiling when you are slapped, you can't forgive when he comes home late every night, you can't be and shouldn't be obsessively in love at all times because it's not Bollywood movie.

But you also don't hate your wife permanently for scolding you, you have to love her when things settle down and when she gives you that smile. You don't hate your husband forever for forgetting to wish your on your birthday, you have to love him when he takes out a surprise gift. You have to be human or you will be divorced. And in divorce both lose. Family fails.

That's how democracy has to be. You can't religiously support one party or oppose another at all times. Good decisions and bad decisions are made- success of democracy depends on how we react to that.And our reactions depend on which group we are in among the three: The Lovers, The Haters, and The Concerned Citizens.

The Lovers are the ones who swear by one party, and regardless of how good or bad the decision the party makes they will not move an inch into disagreement. They are like a obsessive husband who could go and hug his wife after she has thrown a hot pan on his face.

 Contrary to that The Haters are the ones who turn blind eyes to all the good things a party does and suddenly becomes so loud when they see a flaw. They are like an angry husband who would slap his wife even when she gifts him a bouquet of flowers.

My Illustration of Democracy

If we have more of these two groups of people then democracy is at risk. They could fail a country. Therefore we must strive to be and saw the seed of The Concerned Citizens in our youth. Educating and inspiring them to grow the heart that is courteous enough to acknowledge the good even if it's done by an enemy, and courageous enough to condemn even when the wrongdoer is a friend. That like a very human and loving husband.

The only difference between marriage and democracy is that in democracy you go to poll every five years and change the government if you don't like it...

Anderson Silva Influenced 2013 Election

Our 2013 Election gave birth to many schools of thought. The political pundits blamed India, China, Times of India to something as volatile as gas. But nobody blamed Anderson Silva for losing the championship six days before our general election. We are Bhutanese and we believe in signs and that fight was a clear sign that a champion will be knocked out.

There goes the Champion 

When whole country was anxious about the 13th July I was looking forward to Anderson's fight on July 7. I have never seen this man lose a fight ever since I became UFC fan. I had a thoroughly mixed feeling for the champion, I loved the guy so much but for once I wanted to see him being beaten, and again deep inside I had the strong feeling that he is invincible. If you have watched that fateful fight you will know how the invincible clowned with his opponent and paid the price that cannot be forgotten in seven lives.

The political champion in Bhutan, DPT was believed to be invincible too. It was the party with strong leadership pack and strongest of supporters at grassroot and among business class. But during the campaign period they chose Anderson Silva tactics of making fun of the opponent. They wasted huge energy in insulting PDP's helicopter and power tiller...

But in my most generous calculation I could only forecast 17 seats for PDP which was supposed to be 850% better than their 2008 result. Just as the election makes ordinary people political pundits it also makes many people astrologers too. I heard people having dreamt about having chicken curry and others riding horse downstream. I said I saw Anderson Silva not taking the fight seriously and getting knocked out in the second round, I saw a sure winner losing. And what happened on 7th and 13th July both shocked me.

Signs are shown in different shapes and sizes and for a UFC fan the sign was seen in a UFC Fight and the analysis is to be taken seriously as a joke.

Voters, Vows and Vouchers

A typical Election Campaign vow would be like, "Please vote for me. If I win by the grace of your vote I will make sure I put myself at your service and help find solution to all your problems, big and small."

There are rural voters who take the vow very seriously, not quite innocently though. Recently I was talking to a friend who got elected to National Council, who shared about his experience after winning the election. 

He was overwhelmed by the phone calls and messages he received from his voters. He went on thanking callers for hours after hours and after sometime he hesitated to answer, he badly wanted to switch off his phone, not because he was tired of those calls but because many calls were strange. But he didn't want to be rude, and didn't want to welcome filthy remarks by doing that.

What do I mean by Strange calls? While there are so many calls for shameless personal favours claiming that they voted for him, he was shocked by the number of calls and SMS asking for mobile vouchers. He went to share this strange story with other members of NC only to find that they have their share to share on the same. Are these voters innocent? Have they misunderstood the meaning of 'help' promised in campaign promises of the candidates? 

In no way these voters seem innocent to me, they are either taking advantage of the democratic process where they are pimping their votes or they are trying to pull legs for political reasons. One clear evidence of how cunning some people are was seen during the campaign period in one Dzongkhag, where a surprised candidate showed an SMS asking for voucher to his opponents, and discovered even his opponents had received same SMS from the same number. 

There are too many fingers pointed at politicians and some of those fingers carry stains of dirt on them, which are responsible for making politicians dirty. Clean voters will never produce dirty politicians. Trading vote for personal favour is the biggest risk to democracy that must be slapped on the face right now and here. I would like to urge all contesting candidates not to fall prey to such cunning voters. Tell them straight that you are going to earn votes not buy them and if possible report them to police.

We are all one vote powerful, it's this one priceless vote that makes us all equal in democracy, it's not something that should be joked about for a voucher.

Politically Correct

I found out that throughout this season I am the only fool who has not written anything political on my blog, nor anywhere else. It's not because I am the social media monitor but because I learned from hundreds of debates I read night after night that everybody is right in their own views and that nothing is going to change. Some friends think I must be among those many anonymous writers but I must clarify I didn't find the need to because among thousands of views expressed I saw views that matched mine and that's it.

But today I found something political to write about. National Council Election was long done and forgotten in the midst of National Assembly Election. And where are all the Campaign posters and Banners gone? Those huge pictures are very expensive but within few weeks it is nothing more than a huge pile of toxic waste.

Interestingly, my colleague Lopen Phuba has requested Wangdue NC Dasho Tashi Dorji to give us his campaign banner. And this afternoon we have created the biggest framed photo of Wangdue Dzong using the campaign banner- without the picture of the candidate on the side (:D)

Campaign Banner minus Candidate's Picture is equal to the Biggest Framed picture of Wangdue Dzong!!

This huge frame will be the centeral piece on the enterance wall of the Administration Building in Bajothang High School, thanks to Dasho Tashi Dorji and Lopen Phuba. I am sharing this to let you know that no matter who wins this election, right after the campaign period is over you must try and grab some of their campaign banners to create something like this. This is politically correct!

Election and Social Media in Bhutan

On 23 April 2013, when Bhutan voted for National Council election for the second time in the history of the newly democratic country, another history was made on an equally new platform. For the first so much information was generated by Bhutanese on Social Media, that when I return from short toilet breaks I could see over hundred updates on Twitter and Facebook- and yes everything related to election.
I wish I have the resources to count and analyze how much data was generated exactly but Bhutan telecom must have enjoyed maximum business. Twitter accounts of Kuensel and BBS were on fire that day- another record breaker! When BBS TV viewer were jumping in excitement with the result of fourth Dzongkhag we on Twitter were done with all 20 Dzongkhags results via two government media tweets.
However, National Council Election for some reason is taken lightly by people, at least on social media, and also among the 67 candidates who took part only about 10 of them were active on Facebook and just 3 on Twitter.
Come National Assembly Election and we will see the real revolution of social media. There are several groups on Facebook that are seriously discussing Bhutanese democracy and not to mention the so many anonymous intellects and analysts on Tweeter who have million questions to ask. Bhutanomics has made itself available to Bhutanese via Facebook (though its actual website is blocked) and Bhutantimes.com has made a comeback.
Feeling the need of the time all five political parties have established themselves on the major platforms of social media and are actively interacting with Bhutanese netizens. And interestingly many cabinet ministers have joined Facebook recently, and most of the new members of political parties have begun their introduction from Facebook. Some former members are already seeded player on Social media with amazing fan followers.
If you happen to see a party's page or a member's profile on your Facebook sidebar, that's because they have advertised with Facebook, which is another new thing in Bhutan.

Following table shows the presence of Political parties on Social media: (Click on the pictures to Follow them on Twitter or Like their Facebook Fan Page)



Now Imagine the amount of data Bhutan will generate, and imagine the dimension of debates and their influences on the minds of voters- even those of who are offline!

Social Media Monitor

I am officially appointed as the Social Media Monitor for 2013 Election by Election Commission of Bhutan since 10th March 2013. I will be working under office of Media Arbitrator in Chubachu with a team of media experts and a lawyer.
I have willingly agreed to undertake this role because of my love for social media. Now I can official be on twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and online forums for 24 hours without upsetting my wife.
But I also have fear of being misunderstood by my cyber buddies-you might start thinking I will be policing on you and restrict your freedom on social media but in reality we are as free as ever as long as we follow rules. And ECB Social Media Rules and Regulation of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2012 has nothing more than ordinary rules we follow in life, what makes it different is it stresses on election. It's just a question of few months for the sake of Free and Fair election.

The rules are there to

1. "Promote the responsible use of Social Media..."
2. "Ensure a level playing field for all contestants..."
3. "Prevent and Control any violation of the Electoral Laws in the use of Social Media in elections."

Click on the Picture to Download the book (Just 15 pages)

Let me quote few lines from the Rule book that will give you an idea of what you can and cannot do on Social Media during the Election Period;

4.1

Every user of the Social Media shall have the responsibility to carry out oversight duty and report to the election authorities any violation of the laws, in particular the Election Code of Conduct by a Political Party, Candidate, Voter, media, electoral officer or worker of a Political Party.

4.4

No individual shall communicate/transmit/post hate messages or any content with intent to defame or reduce the electoral chances of an opposing contestant or Political Party.

And under "Fair and Accurate Reporting" I'd like to highlight one point:

8.6

A Party, Candidate or their supporters shall not include rumour or unsubstantiated statements that have potential to mislead or deceive the reader, listener or viewer.

Role of our office is as stated in 4.6 (however the online version needs to be updated with changes made)

"The office of the Media Arbitrator shall put in place facility to monitor the Social Media forums effectively during the election and be responsible to arbitrate all media related disputes."

And in case of violation of the Electoral Laws by Anonymous users on Social Media:

4.9 (It's not in the online version)
"An ISP shall be required to put in place a system that can lawfully intercept and provide the necessary information on the identity of social media abuser using its services"

And two Solid Don't's you must remember during the election period are:

8.2 An online poll on support or opposition to Political Party or Candidate shall not be permitted during the Election Period.

6.1

The 48 hour period before poll and until the close of Polls, is also referred as Blackout Period or the 48-hour no-campaign period under the Laws, during which:

6.1.1

No one shall publish, broadcast, or transmit any item that is of the nature of election campaign supporting or opposing any Political Party or Candidate.

 **The views expressed on this blog are my own (except the Quotes) and not those of the Election Commission of Bhutan or the Office of Media Arbitrator. It's for my fellow social media users for information.

Rice Vote From People of Haa

I learned from Channel NewsAsia that there are 190,000 varieties of rice in the world. That moment of enlightenment made me wonder why there is no rice growing in Haa. I am selfishly crying about Haa because there lies my root and there still is my home, however this subject applies to all the places like Haa and colder than Haa.
The 190,000 varieties of rice are not just any rice collected from different countries or based on their size and color, they are of different natures. There are rice that will grow in flooded land, and there are ones that will grow in dry land.There are also ones that will survive in drought, and strangely some can grow in salt water.
There are even ones that will withstand extreme heat, not to mention extreme cold. And how come we always thought Haa is too cold for growing rice?

A legend has it that once upon a time the protective deity of Haa, Ap Chundu and the deity of Paro went to mountains to bring home magical water that will help in growing rice. But on their way back the deity of Paro played a trick and made Ap Chundu drink till he went to deep slumber. When Ap Chundu woke up finally, the water they brought together was all gone to Paro. That's why rice grow in Paro despite being as cold as Haa. Furious Ap Chundu threatened to destroy everything and dry the river up, to which the deity of Paro promised to feed people of Haa with the first harvest from Paro. The tradition of offering the first rice harvest to temples and relatives in Haa is still practiced.

Now, that was indefinite years ago and people in Paro have found hundreds of ways to deal with their harvest and Haa can no longer depend on the paddies in Paro. We need to grow our own rice. It's time to rewrite the legend differently. That's why I am looking forward to 2013 election.

In last five years, nothing happened in my side of Haa, perhaps there was nothing there to do. We had roads, bridges, electricity, hospital, school, and water for a long time. I wonder what promises our MP made then. The only business that fed Haap was the trade across the mountain and that still remains illegal and our fields could only grow wheat, which is just enough to generate flour for performing lochoe.
In 2013 I want my MP to promise 'Rice in Haa' and ask for 'Rice Vote', and fulfill the promised in his five years term and become a legend- The man who brought rice to Haa. But if our MP fails to think beyond farm road and bridges then our people must remind our MP to think out of the box and say we will only vote for rice. I am going to do just that!
Perhaps with rice our field may turn greener again and our empty villages may see folks returning home...