July 4th is a big day for America. It is America’s National Independence Day. As usual July 4th 2011 was marked by mega celebrations in different cities, including one in the nation’s capital – Washington DC. Crackers worth millions of dollars went up in the night sky – in red, yellow, blue and green. The … Read more
Following the offer of third country resettlement program, even BNS team members had to agree to a dispersed living across the world, within the parameters set by resettling countries. It is perhaps, what we like to call, a ‘choice from a choice-less choice’. As you all do, we are also struggling for both personal and family’s existence in the new setting. Nonetheless, we are truly committed towards devoting our time to safeguarding your right to information through the steady existence of BNS. Of late, we started to fear that we might have to lose emerging writers due to our inability to remunerate their efforts.
Recently, Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley, who traveled to the United States this week to speak at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum, told Al Jazeera that, “In Bhutan even the street dogs seem to be smiling.” Article 9 of Bhutan’s constitution puts it simply: “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.” To a lay person, being happy means having clothes to keep warm during the freezing Himalayan winter and having money to buy medication when a family member is sick. To this person, Gross National Happiness might mean living in a house with family and working the farm, instead of living in slum by the side of the road doing unpaid, compulsory labor for the government.