Editorial
The Magic of Gross National Happiness, a book authored by Doris Lee McCoy, has been published in Bhutan. The American authoress is a psychologist, speaker, interviewer, professor, consultant and TV moderator/producer. Eight months’ time of hers has been consumed by the book in its gestation period.
For every Bhutanese, hearing about the publication of any book written on Bhutan is a matter of pleasure and pride since it gets the world to know and understand more about the out-of-the-way nation but there should be truth in the literature. Just looking at the cover of the book by Doris, one who’s not known anything about Bhutan concludes that the country is peopled by one ethnic group only and the ones who know that there are more than one ethnic group in Bhutan make out that only the certain category of citizens are happy there. It looks like the RGOB had McCoy write the book if we scan the upper part of the front cover design of the book and if this is true, it’s a hard kick in the RGOB’s teeth. That’s to say, the RGOB is digging its own grave. McCoy might have knowingly had the cover designed that way so that the world can excavate the reality out from the earth of GNH which is beneficial to us in a great deal in that the truth is being visualized.
The concept of Gross National Happiness is benign but when it refers to Bhutan, it’s uncalled-for to tag Bhutan as one of the happiest countries while more than one hundred thousand citizens have been cast out from the land. What weighing machine does Bhutan employ to gauge the so called happiness? What are the factors incorporated to determine it? In the list of countries by literacy rate as included in the United Nations Development Programme report 2009, Bhutan is to be found 166th with 52.8%.The analysis of the performance of the health systems of WHO’s 191 Member States has placed Bhutan in 124th level in accordance with Medical Tourism Magazine, September 2007.On the basis of GDP (nominal) per capita, in 2009, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and CIA Fact Book have listed Bhutan in 120th, 127th and 128th ranks respectively.
Editors
The forcible exile of over 100,000 southern Bhutanese is evident of the true state of affair in Bhutan. The HDI you have quoted above speaks volume on the reality in the Land of GNH.