A letter to Member of Parliament Representing Bumthang.

Picture Courtesy: Google

Dasho(s)

 By profession,  I am a Customs officer working in Paro International airport. And today I write this epistle to you NOT as a civil servant, but as a concern citizen form your constituency; - Bumthang, Ura, Shingkhar.

Of the many agencies involved in successful implementation of the recent Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan 2010, my department has always been in the forefront.  Successful implementation of the act to some extent depended on the initiatives and resoluteness of our team as well. Today we are in the 6^th month of its implementation and strangely the act has come under a sharp criticism not only from our own citizens but also from the foreigners too.

However, I am not here to give justification on their behalf. Rather I am here to share my own opinion with you as suggested by our Excellency Prime Minister. With this I am also hopeful that interaction like this will have positive impact and will go a long way in the history of consultative law making in our peaceful country.

Personally speaking, I am a non smoker. Therefore I have a devilish allergy to the smokes especially of the tobacco. It is no doubt that so many people are falling victim to this evil addiction and that there was a genuine need for the state to curb it. It was indeed a very noble initiative for our Parliament to have come with such a timely act. I am a pro Tobacco control act and as a citizen, sincerely salute our Parliament for the concern.

I am a firm believer in Buddhism too.  But my endeavor to regard tobacco as against it has yielded no results yet. Considering the pains and sufferings it brought to those innocent addicts, I still consider it as an ill product that deserves to be kept at bay forever.  It’s a genuine fight and that we need to fight it collectively and responsibly.

 A thing of fight against tobacco has become a worldwide phenomenon and that we are not alone fighting this war. Many countries in the world are today fighting the same war. This is nothing unprecedented and that it requires dedication, time and patience. Worldwide experience shows that Countries who came out victorious are the ones who fought the war with extra care and diligence. 

But, here we are, stuck somewhere in the middle of the war. With the coming of noble intended act, rampant criminalization of its citizens has thus ensued. We seem to have gotten our war strategy wrong, because the otherwise godly intended act has been marred by atrocious penalties it contained.

If I am not wrong, our Dzongkhag was the first Dzongkhag to have banned the sale and distribution of any tobacco products. Befitting to numerous sacred relics, places and monasteries in the locality, the decision was supported by the majority of people. But sadly the failure to uphold the decision was not only poor but was lamentingly disastrous. The black market thrived.

 Taking these facts into consideration, you should have been the first person to have voiced about the consequences besides wider varieties of alternatives like education, counseling, awareness and other tobacco cessation programmes. Little more consultation (if done) with people would have also helped you contribute substance to the act when it was being debated in the house.

The recent ‘Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan 2010’ failed to live up to the expectations of common citizens. Most think its "draconian" and illogical. No act/law in the History has ever imprisoned its citizens like it did and today citizens are calling for the immediate amendment.  Amendment, I think is being called for because we realize something is not really right. This is not only a failure by the law makers but failure of all the citizens too. As a Nation we are equally responsible!

In saying, let the bygone be bygone, let us not forget that if a Nation building is a journey then let us take each single step together with extra care and diligence. With this let us also learn to fall back when we know the way ahead is rough and slippery.

So, I am urging you as my representative to revisit the act once again and do the necessary amendments (if possible) within the earliest possible date. I am saying this because other then the detention centers and prisons; more schools, more hospitals, clean water, continuous power and good roads are something we pressingly need at the moment. I believe our Government is working on it, day and night and more still needs to be done.

With respect,

Sincerely

Kuenzang Thinley

Bumthang, Ura, Shingkhar

How a Commoner sees and thinks about common things.

Think and Rethink, you will feel the difference

I am an ordinary man. So I think like one and act like one. I am neither born maestro nor made master. Therefore my thinkings and perspectives are always mundane and are at times, unintelligible. Having said that, I wouldn't want to keep my feelings for myself alone, so here I am to share all my mundanely feelings with all my readers. 

For easy reference, let us now look at some of the things at are visible to our naked eyes and those that  doesn't require any statistical findings and mathematical calculations to prove it. But I warn you, that this is not a detailed report though!

We are all a proud citizen of Bhutan. (and even more proud, because we are developing country) Over a period of time, there has been a rampant urbanization process taking place all over the country. This process has really come as a boon for those few who have the luxury of either inheriting or the means to acquire, an ever appreciating and scarce natural resource called the Land. 

With this, let us not forget that our world at large is not only being faced with a problem of food insecurity, drought and inflation but we are also equally being challenged by our newly invented problems like balanced diets and recipe of a healthy life stuffs .

Today if we look carefully, almost all our cultivable land are either being converted to industrial estate or a construction hub when our policy makers are all busy talking about self reliance in terms of cereals and other oil crops (by 2008). With the current phase of urbanization, we will only take few more years before we could see all our cultivable land being engulfed either for the construction of house or for roads. 

Then, with our representatives at the helm of their power has given us a Law, -which mjority thinks is the most controversial law in the history of our civilization ("Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan 2010") of which scholars and lay man have equally  voiced their concerns. There were many who supported it but more many who opposed it vehemently. Few of the act chauvinist deemed it necessary because they felt the smokers and tobacco consumers are polluting the clean environment and are being anti Buddhist. The idea seems not Bad!

But what about the doma munchers? We sincerely think that, as much as nonsmokers deserve clean air, (free of tobacco smoke) I think the tobacco consumers also deserve that mush clean wall,  clean dustbin, clean pillars, clean posts, clean window panes, clean corner and to the extent possible clean streets.   

 More so, in more equal and more democratic manner, what about the boozers? As much as the tobacco smokers and doma munchers are deemed havoc, boozers in reality are double the havoc in comparison. Apart form distorting the social harmony in numerous ways, boozers are shameless animals at their worst. Thier uncontrolled action in public often makes me think that  they deserve to be  trailed for public indecency.

Sadly, there are some who fortunately or unfortunately does not fall in any of the category mentioned above. Can they be called as a middle class freaks? They are not munchers, not puffers and not boozers but they are the real silent middle class commoners. They are the dreamers and they are the builders of castle in the air. They are the ones who define the terminology of luxury and necessities in general. 

Of late, with public transportation services still in their dusty infancy, if not for jazzy land cruisers and showy Prado, owning a thing of Alto car, Ford Figo, i10, i20 etc have become their fancy. But how sad, their mouths are soon planked by the revision of car tax (although it stands null now). They were denied their right to pollute their per capita of clean air, clean surroundings and clean atmosphere altogether!

So the bottom line here is, before we can have a another set of funny and punkier rules and regulation, (like P/ling Thrompon and his plan of making people wear gho and kira mandatory in sweating and dusty town, if true) why can't we all do some serious rethinking, redefining, researching, re-looking so that we as a commoner at least realize that the common sense is something that we as a commoner sometimes tend to over look.

What do you say? "Now, If you Have it, then pen it "

A walk in the rain!

By any definition, I am a human being. Even though I believe in Buddhist thing called birth and rebirth, I am cent percent sure that I am not a reincarnate of any being. Definitely not a reincarnate of any aquatic being like fish octopus and for that matter a turtle. Thats why I have a strong allergy, being in water and walking in water, except my bathing hours.

Yesterday evening, when I got out my office and started my homeward walk, it was little past seven. The street lights in their full brightness glowed like "shining papayas". It appeared to be a very conducive evening for a walk. Perhaps with a kind of  poetic mood, I was as romantic as the evening itself. 

Halfway into my walk, a little drizzle quickly took a wrath of a heavy downpour. To worsen the already wretched condition, there was a disruption in the power supply and every thing got engulfed in the dark clad blanket called night. Mind you I was in my official uniform (Customs) 

The only light that illuminated my way was form few of the automobiles that ran on the highway form behind, Those that came form the opposite direction blinded my eyes with their powerful head lights. They lack the courtesy of using dipper lights when someone is walking form the opposite direction. I felt that, it was a display of unethical and un sensual driving. 

As mush as there were people out for a walk, there were that many cars plying too. When I was just about to reach to a place wherein I could wait for the downpour to stop, someone from the fast passing car puffed the smoke of a cigarette on my face. I don't know why he had to do that for me. 

Please god, save the enforcers, for it's not the enforcers that make unenforceable laws.