One major lesson from the start of COVID-19 in Bhutan from March and especially in the lockdown is that Bhutan can do a lot more to improve its food production, distribution and storage. The Agriculture Minister in a refreshing stance has admitted to the failures in the Agricultural sector on …

LONDON – Over the next 30 years, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population will double to over two billion, and its economies will industrialize. Africa’s development will therefore be critical to the world’s future stability, prosperity, and health. Given this, the continent should be receiving much more international attention. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted a …

The Health Minister said that according to technical experts the lockdown which started due to the Gelephu lady case had come at the right time as there would have been a lot of spread if it even came a week later. Bhutan was also fortunate to discover most of its …

BERLIN – The recent Republican National Convention was scandalous for many reasons – from the misuse of the White House as a campaign prop (in violation of the Hatch Act and longstanding norms) and the brazen mendacity of its speakers, to the parade of Trump family members. Amid the tawdry spectacle of …

The last three weeks has seen a ballooning of community transmission cases in Bhutan starting from some local transmission in the Mini Dry Port in Phuentsholing and then continuing with community transmission being discovered in Phuentsholing. The Ministry of Health’s technical experts may take time to come up with an …

NEW YORK – Observers of US-China relations increasingly talk of a new cold war. On top of a long-running trade war, the two countries now find themselves in a destructive cycle of mutual sanctions, consulate closings, and increasingly bellicose official speeches. Efforts to decouple the US economy from China’s are …

As most of us have been indoors fretting about our own families and supplies, thousands of brave Bhutanese in the form of Desuups, health workers, frontline workers and volunteers have been out in the hot summer sun protecting and serving us. These heroes are ordinary fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, daughters, …

ISLAMABAD – In 2017, I was a candidate to become the next Director-General of the World Health Organization. At the 70th World Health Assembly, I stood before health ministers from around the world and warned that three things could destroy the planet: a celestial event, a third world war, or …

From the time COVID-19 came onto the scene towards the end of the last year The Bhutanese Newspaper was the first to regularly update the rise of international cases country wise. The paper was accused of causing alarm but the aim was to alert the nation to an incoming threat that would …

There has been some inefficiency and confusion around the delivery of essential items and vegetables in Thimphu since the start of the lockdown.  The lockdown, though sudden, should not have come as a surprise as the government machinery had months to plan and prepare for it. When you plan to …