Let’s Talk Money – The Happy Nation

Bhutan is ranked as the most peaceful country in South Asia for the 2021. Sure, we are happy and proud. On the other hand, how can we be at peace when Our Majesty is in constant worry fighting Covid-19 at the front line? How can we brand ourselves the happiest nation when we know for a fact that we are far from being self-sufficient? Do we want to continue being the back drop for the people from rich nations to come and take breaks from their normal busy life? Or do we want to strive harder to reach their achievements, of course while keeping our culture and traditions intact?  

Recently I have been involved in writing content for a certain paper related to Covid-19 and its impact on Bhutan. I know for a fact that the number of individuals living off Druk Gyalpo’s Relief Kidu is huge. Recently, with the floating of shares (held in the name of Sungchob Fund and Kidu Fund) for sale, the extend of the pressure caused to the Relief Fund can only be imagined. If this cannot make us worry, then I don’t know what can.

Read More

The Mind As Energy

If an individual wants to achieve the highest possible goal that lies within one’s ability, then one must harvest the energy of the mind. How fascinating is it that computers can store a large volume of information such as thousands of photos, videos, songs and perform varieties of task at a given time. This is nothing compared to the human mind. How many memories of events, people, past, future plans, ideas do we hold at a given time and still perform activities such as eating, watching tv, and analyzing all at the same time.

Our brain has been doing computation since the time we came into existence. One simple example to discuss; when crossing the road; we look to the left, to right, estimate the distance between ourselves and the moving car, estimate its velocity and calculate the time it will take to reach our point. All in a fraction of a second, and zoom, we cross the road without getting hit. Also, the brain never stops growing, in fact, learning new skills become easier as we stimulate the brain to allow more experience, it’s called neuroplasticity. It’s like learning to drive, scared in the beginning but gets better if we drive consistently. Similar interesting area to explore about brain is to explore the philosophical part of the mind.

Read More

My Forgotten Blog

Almost a decade since I last posted on my blog. Recently, a young blogger friend of mine, in a casual conversation happen to discuss about his variety of online works. He shared about how he was also able to earn few amounts, to support through his education years. After the conversation I came to check on my long forgotten blog. While scrolling through the pages, all the memories of those blogging days came back. It was also emotional that I have forgotten the blog, but nothing on the blog has changed, it stayed exactly as how I left it some 10 years ago. Friends who followed the blog were still here. I felt terrible that I let my passion for writing suffer a slow death. 

During the initial years when I stopped posting on the blog, the writing was on, but my articles were sometimes too personal and sometimes too sensitive to post ( or so I thought). Since I wasn't posting my articles on the blog, slowly it seem unnecessary to even write down. After that, many articles have been written in my mind and disappeared into thin air, without ever coming out in black and white. As more years passed by, even writing in my mind stopped. 

Read More

Being a citizen

:) my this essay won the best entry for "Beyond the Ballot" Challenge ( bagging me 10,000 Ngultrun  cash prize plus a certificate), Celebrating International day for Democracy 15 sept. Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy hosted the competition together with  UNDP, and UNDEF on the theme "Citizen". what does it mean to be a citizen?

Being a citizen

The meaning of being a citizen extends beyond just possessing the Citizenship Identity Card. Love and respect for the nation. It is about respecting the principles and laws of the government, abiding by the laws, which you as a citizen approved prior to bringing into effect. Being a citizen should mean raising your voice at the flaws of decision made by the law making body. It means not keeping quite when the government goes wrong. It doesn’t even mean you keep complaining. What it takes to being a citizen is your willingness to give opinions and point out the flaws, if any, and together working towards a better amendment.

He who is a good citizen will have the qualities; 1) Not being opportunistic and not misusing government resources. 2) Serving the Nation selflessly without seeking individual benefit and working towards upbringing of the people 3) Being compassionate towards the needy ones and extending a helping hand where possible. 4) Respect for the older, courtesy towards the young and consideration among peers. 5) Pride and respect for the unique culture and tradition the nation has, 6) and the mind to keep these traditions alive. 7) Being wise in adopting foreign cultures.

As much as one might think one is right with one’s opinion, one should respect the principles and views of other fellow citizens. Participating in community activities, the activity might be as small as a cleaning campaign or constructing a bridge. Nevertheless, your interest and willingness to be a part of that small event shall prove that you have the sense of belongingness towards your community.  A citizen should not lag behind in standing up for the rights of his own and at the same time should not fail in respecting the rights of the people around as much.

Sometimes being a citizen takes as little as having common sense. For example; by not leaving your waste/garbage behind at a picnic spot, you may be playing just your role but you are being a good citizen by not littering the environment.  Taking care of public properties or at least not destroying them.

When it comes to voting for the leader, we all should keep in mind that it is not the political party that matters. In the end, it all comes down to, how capable that particular person we are voting for is in serving the needs of our community. Our vote should not be biased towards a party background nor should it be based on a relation.  Most of all, it is about being true to ourselves while choosing the leader. 

Being a citizen (of Bhutan) is not just about holding pride talking about GNH somewhere abroad, but it also is about being able to think on the social, economic and environmental issues within the nation and showing concern. It doesn’t end by just showing concern, we all should come hand in hand and work towards how these issues might be addressed.

Well, wearing the national dress, speaking the national language and holding Citizenship Identity Card may be defined as being a citizen, but understanding and feeling yourself as one such citizen has a meaning broader than these physical proves. He is a person with honesty, a person true to himself and others as a whole. Above everything, all that takes to being a good citizen of any nation (for that matter, of the world) is being a good human being. Being a citizen is very simple yet a tough job, it is about playing your role with honesty and integrity. 

Lotey Om 
B.Sc (Physics) Hons, 4^th year
The University of New England                                                                

Armidale, NSW, Australia                                                                           

Read More

Talking to the bear :)

Knowing 'Love' + missing you 

Love is a crazy thing; it makes you want to cry, frustrated and messed up. It leaves you in total confusion and illusion. Because one is giving too much, so are the expectation and when these hopes go wrong, there is only hurting and pain at both ends. Sometimes you will wish if you didn’t love that person, because if you didn’t, walking away and never looking back would be an easy choice. But since you care, you will always want to compromise. You will notice how sometimes he tries not showing his anger just because he didn’t want to hurt you, even when it’s reached beyond tolerance. Love sees no ego. You will see yourself saying, ‘I am sorry, it’s all my fault’ while you still might be trying to figure out what went wrong.

Well off course, these little misunderstanding counts to nothing when compared to the happiness you get by being in love. Life is more beautiful knowing that there will always be him by your side not matter what. It is happiness to having found someone you can love and that happiness is more when you mean as much to the person. There is something I have known; as much as one care and love someone, it is equally important to know how much you mean to that someone as well. As long as there is true love and trust, a relation will have the strength to get through any misunderstanding. 


At the end of the day, love always makes me  smile :) 

Read More

Not just the roses alone

Going got so disheartening and hopelessly tough that now I’m saying, ‘ok life take your share, you have been kind to me till now’. Life has given me more than I even asked for, wondering if I ever appreciated.  How could I have had any complain those days? If ever I had

Read More

..dies but not by itself

At a point in my life, I tried to fit in with the people around. That didn’t just include: showing up at some festive gathering even at times when i didn’t wanted to because there is something the society calls it cooperation, wearing outfits which were supposedly in fashion, giving opinions which sometimes might not have been what you wanted to say but knew what the other person expected to hear. These ones are actually the simpler versions of what some of us do to fit in with the environment.

Read More