gross national happiness

We have driven deeper into the country - still in what is considered western Bhutan -but we are definetly more central now - in an area called Punakha (though we are staying nearby in Wangdi - nicknamed Windy - and it sure is! Thought at first we were experiencing some tail edge of the typhoon that just pounded Vietnam...but apparently this is normal...and I will take it - I find wind to be so invigorating. Prayers to those who got too much wind this week, though...). It is absolutely great to have left the city of Thimphu - was ready to go a couple days ago - interesting place, but a city is still a city, and I have been craving a more rugged landscape. And we got it - to say the road here was windy (not windy, windy - haha) would be a massive understatement. Still, we all held it together, so I was able to fully appreciate the innumerable waterfalls and magnifecently forested steep mountainsides of the northern edges of the Himalyan foothills. After a visit to the local dzong (these are ancient/current administrative and religious buildings), which used to the capital of Bhutan - and still hosts the national monk body during the winter months - we took a walk across a swiss-made suspension bridge over one of the two large rivers in the area. The dzong is located where the two rivers meet - one Mo Chu (mother), the other Po Chu (father). We are starting to play with the idea of whitewater rafting/floating this week, if possible, but this type of tourism is still very much in its infancy here.

Which brings me, again, to the complexity of Bhutan. It is actually difficult to find the appropriate words to express the paradoxes and conflicts I am experiencing here - but, in the end, I think that no matter what I think, it all just is what it is. And what it is, among other things, is unique. For starters, there is no other country on earth where the ruling monarchy has not only willingly, but insisted upon, devolving its own power into the hands of its citizens. There are a couple of angles to this - most attractive to me is the idea that it stems partly from the buddhist culture which places a high value on giving away that which is most valuable to you - and in the case of monarchy, this is power. Beyond that, the far-sighted and well-educated royalty understood that while they may be benevolent kings, that may not always be the case... Furthermore, the reality was that the people didn't want it. They LOVE their king here, and he had to use this as his way of convincing them to buy into it - basically, if you love me, and trust me, you will trust my insistence on democracy. So, here I am, in the youngest democracy in the world - where many people not only don't know how, but many actually don't want, to defy or criticize authority. So much is in such a state of twisted flux here...

Which brings me to education. Education. This place has me questionning (again) the very definition of the word... The thing is, it is not the value of education, at the end of the day, that I am so concerned about - I am unwavered in my belief in the value of knowing and learning and questionning - it is the method and priority placed on conventional, academic, classroom teaching that (once again) has my head spinning. Of course literacy is important. And the opportunities and insight that standardized education systems can lead to are important. And, of course, there is critical thinking - an essential ingredient to democracy. This final attribute of education is proving to be a difficult segue in Bhutan - a country, as I mentionned, with a tradition of deferring to authority - including teachers. Stutdents' answer to every question or comment is, simply, 'yes ma'am'. From what I have learned from some foreign teachers here, despite attempts to infuse the Bhutanese education system with Canadian curricula, the students have very little capacity or interest in developing or expressing personal opinions and viewpoints. Not to say this won't come with time - again, this is a country in very real flux...but as it stands, my impression of most of the education that is happening here is that it is not very progressive. The conditions at the boarding schools, without getting into details, are not great - though the students do also have fun and they do learn . So, this is where I cringe and wonder about the value of 'education', per se. When the system first started about 30 years ago, officials literally had to go into communities and sign the students up - parents did not want to send them off (sound familiar?). And, this isn't colonization, but these students, even to this day, are essentially only allowed to leave their boarding schools for holidays - no weekend passes, even for students who live minutes away. Once they are finsihed their schooling - having been promised opportunity through education - most do not qualify for post-secondary (if there were even spaces for them), and have been convinced that labour work (including continuing on their ancient family farms) is not worthy work - and off to Thimphu they go....most to little opportunity and growing youth issues of susbstance abuse and gangs (though, it should be noted, that the gangs are nothing compared to other countries - not yet, anyway). Can you understand the confusion? I suppose my gripe is, again, with conventional, rigid, authoritarian education systems. Without wanting to sound romantic about the difficult life of farming, what does it do to a country to ship all its youth off to schools, and off the land, to learn from books inside classrooms? Add to this the introduction of tv's, movies, music etc - and with it the images and attitudes of materialism and consumerism- and one is left with a simmering soup of, well, actually, who knows what. And that's just it - it just is what it is. An experiment. Change. Bhutan was/is determined not to fall victim to the same forces that invaded Tibet and Nepal, so they are taking deliberate efforts to manage the inevitability of modernization.

All this in a country still completely steeped in Buddhist tradition and spirituality, where the Earth is not only sacred , but is actually protected in their consitution (60% of forest cover is protected through the consitution - currently, 75% of the country is covered in forest). There is no suggestion at secularization - as the Bhutanese culture is infused with Buddhist philosophy and ritual - and, as one of the four pillars of the policy of Gross National Happiness, Bhutanese culture is also protected (How far will change be allowed to go? Will the impressions and influence of the youth, who make up 54% of the country, eventually lead to a significant westernization of Bhutanese culture? How does this all clash with the Buddhist belief in impermanence?) As for GNH - I have learned more about this in the past two weeks, from various people including young Bhutanese journalists to high-ranking (Canadian educated) government officials. There is no disagreement as to the value of it, or the relevance, to not only Bhutan, but also the rest of the world, as we (not they) struggle to find a balance after years of wanton destruction and limitless growth. Here, I love the Buddhist philosophy of the Middle Path - the path between excess and denial. GNH is based on four pillars - Sustainability, Environmental Preservation, Culture and Tradition, and Good Governance. It is believed that health in all these 4 areas will not necessarily make everyone 'happy' (an admittedly subjective state), but provide the conditions for happiness - whatever that might mean to any given individual/community. Certainly sounds idealistic (probably why I love it), and it's implementation is not without its difficulties and paradoxes - especially in country in such flux - but it is, without question, an ideal worth striving for, and is, I believe, one of the most valuable gifts and insights Bhutan has to offer (one among many, I would suggest). Leaders and economists are starting to take notice, too. Many ask - how does one measure happiness? A very valid and complex question - but, just because there is no easy answer does not mean it does not deserve serious consideration. And, in reality, when considering the 4 pillars of GNH, one can easilly start to imagine quantitative ways of measuring 'happiness'....since everyone knows that only things that can be counted are of value (tongue firmly in cheek - the government official mentionned this, and it is painfully true of our society, but there is no doubt a shift happening - if adverts are any indication - just the other day I saw an advert for a bank or the like with the slogan - 'not everything that counts can be counted'. Things like that remind me to be hopeful - because, in all honesty, there is something searing to my soul about witnessing the invasion of a superficial, consumer, automobile-centric, processed food, corporate culture, (and then there's that ultra conventional education system) into Bhutan. Not that everyone here lives like that, yet - not even close (80% are still farmers) - just yesterday, driving to Punakha, we pulled over to the side of the road to enjoy fresh corn on the cob being roasted over an open fire...the students noted that back home its McDonald's, here its roasted corn. But one can see it all coming in big tsunami-like waves. And then again, its never happened here or like this before - maybe this time it will be different. More balanced, more spiritual, more equitable, more compassionate - more ecological even. For now, it is what it is. And what it is is unique. And most fascinating.

I suppose I can best sum up my experience here as this: while Bhutan has developed, and continues to develop, a most fantastic alternative to our narrow-minded (among other things) measure of 'wealth', and the policies exist and are being developed to support that philosophy, the irony is that development here seems to still be happening in much the same way it has in the rest of the modernized world...not entirely, but muchly...including that education system...for all the progressive examples in the world, few seem to have trickled into Bhutan, a country that seems desperate to do things differently, and has the spiritual, cultural, and political will to support it. Where are all those amazing environmental technologies we have been developing? Why must the education system here be so archaic? How does Bhutan match their ideals with what is developing in the communities?

There is so much more I could ramble on about here - but tomorrow we go visit our first boarding school to learn and to help out. It will be an early morning, and its been a long (beautiful) day on a long and windy (not windy - hehe) road. I am still missing my friends and family as I manage this programme on my own - but I am beside a river surrounded by trees - and I rarely feel lonely in these places. I love being in a country where love for nature and protection of the environment is not something that one must be convinced of. And everyone does smile a lot here. And I feel VERY safe. And I have made some local friends whose company and insight I really appreciate. I continue to be thankful for, and look forward to, the comforts of home... the world is certainly full of paradox, chaos and confusion - but it is also replete with love, joy, compassion, ambition, imagination, and wisdom. It is all very much a work in progress (as am I!) Peace and Love.