EDITORIAL

Bhutanese lives are cheap

Bhutanese people may not like the heading above, but it is a fact of life. Around 11 months ago on 3 March 2023 the nation was shocked as a helicopter crash took the lives of a mother and younger daughter. The father and elder daughter were also in the same …

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The ministers

One of the first tasks for the newly elected PDP government elect will be for the Prime Minister elect to select his ministers. There has been much speculation, suggestion and hopes, but the PM elect has let it be known that the selection will be driven on merit and the …

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Talk it out

The General Election results are a matter of concern given the regional divide. It is symptomatic of deeper issues that needs to be explored and addressed. However, there already is a move towards not talking about it and pretending that nothing happened. The regional divide was already there since the …

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What the new Govt faces

After 9th January Bhutan will get its fourth elected government and the tasks before it will be enormous. The first task will be to go through the draft 13th plan and give it a final shape by approving or disapproving what is there and inserting their own programs and pledges. …

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Gelephu questions

After the announcement of the Gelephu Mindfulness City there has been a rash of questions demanding immediate answers over land acquisition, investors, infrastructure details and more. There is either extreme optimism on one side or fearful predictions on the other side. It is natural that a project of such magnitude …

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Mindfulness City

When talk about the Gelephu City first emerged many months ago, many imagined it would be full of skyscrapers and resemble any other city in the world. However, the final vision of the Mindfulness City revealed before us has many things going for it. Given our location, resources and stage …

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Reality Check

For a while now, Bhutan has witnessed an unprecedented migration as thousands of mainly young Bhutanese have been leaving for the foreign shores of Australia, Canada and UK on student visas to be able to earn a degree and earn money.  The aim for many was to work for extended …

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From a security state to an economic one

If one looks at why Bhutan does not grow economically or the barriers to economic growth then it often has to do with the security obsessed mentality of Bhutan. As a small Himalayan country, Bhutan went through the traumatic situation of seeing its cultural and religious cousins being gobbled up …

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What the voters want

The primary round results are in and the biggest message from the voters is that they want change as the two parties in the final round were not even in Parliament. It is clear that the voters were not happy with the performance of both the ruling DNT and opposition …

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Decision day

November 30 is only a few days away and the main question on many minds will be on which two parties will make it to the final round. The first thing that must be said is that this is the most competitive primary round till date with five strong parties …

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