Around the same time 11 years ago, we saw history in the making as His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was officially crowned as the fifth hereditary King of Bhutan. The sacrosanct ceremony where His Majesty received the sacred Dhar or scarf as per tradition in Punakha Dzong was held on November 1, 2008, an […]
Read More“How dare you?” thundered Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg at the UN climate summit this year. She was confronting the nations for the devastation they had unleashed on planet earth even as they talked about money and the economics of power. She was compelling them to face the fact that they would be responsible […]
Read MoreMany of us have been horrified by the rape of two minors that took place within two consecutive days in Dagana and Paro earlier this week. In Dagana, a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped on September 18. On the next day on September 19, a class II student of a school in Paro, who was […]
Read MoreSocial media has changed the way how we give friends updates, share pictures and reconnect. It has quickly become a popular and efficient way to keep in touch and provided people with a platform to communicate information in a way that they may otherwise never have considered. But what most users of Facebook and Twitter […]
Read MoreA tragedy occurred last week: a six-week-old baby died at the Largyab Basic Health unit in Dagana after hours of waiting for an ambulance that had run out of fuel. We are struck with wonder and disbelief at this but maybe we cannot quite comprehend the grief and frustration of the parents of the baby […]
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One incidence of child sexual abuse was reported every week last year. The highest number of cases was reported from Gelephu. The perpetrators were men. What is the problem here? Where are we going wrong? Don’t we have strong enough policies and laws to protect our children and prevent such cases of abuse? Right now, […]
Read MoreWhat started as mid-term review by the first democratically elected government has given way to the annual performance agreement (APA), which was initiated by the previous government. Currently, the government has been signing almost one APA after another, including most recently with the Thromde and the information and communications ministry. The APA has a cascading […]
Read MoreCurrently, Bhutan has a huge problem with unemployment and job forecasting. For instance, a huge number of engineering students are being churned out on a regular basis but they don’t have jobs. Whom do we blame? The labor ministry for failing to forecast employment or the education sector for the same? It’s a shame that […]
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In what appears to be the last measure following the failure of various initiatives to urge people, especially in the urban areas to move from subsidized to non-subsidized cooking gas cylinders, the trade department issued a notification last week stating that it would lift the supply of subsidized gas cylinders from the four Thromdes starting […]
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Zhemgang has been removed from the list of dzongkhags under the flagship program in the 12th Five year Plan. Four dzongkhags – Dagana, Gasa, Lhuentse and Zhemgang – were supposed to get Nu 11mn as part of the flagship program but now Zhemgang has been unceremoniously dropped from the list. Who is to blame and […]
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