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Presentation on GNH; Audiences covered by satellite from
Osaka, Nagoya, Hukuoka and Okinawa of SEISA; Japan
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The planet
that we live in, the earth is under extreme pressure from various economic developments.
In this regard, we need to connect our pulse to the pulse of our planet, the earth.
Considering the escalating world societal issues such as ecology, environment, catastrophic
climate change, extreme poverty and exploitation of various resources has
driven Bhutan to adopt a new development paradigm as an alternative approach to
development that is Gross National Happiness which envisions holistic view
towards development considering every aspect of the society. It also envisions
the fact that Gross Domestic Product based development model failed to sustain
the limited resources of the planet, the earth.
Numerous
problems have ensued because of the GDP based model for development. There are
ecological crises where the rise of technologies has depleted the resources
producing waste, polluting air, water and soil. Moreover, the urbanization has
led to the loss of biodiversity and peaceful co-existence of balanced ecosystems.
On the social and economic front, there is economic disparity created between the
haves and haves' nots in which the rich become richer, and the poor remains
poorer. There are still 1.2 billion people living under the poverty line with
an income of just less than US$1.25 (Royal Government of Bhutan, 2013) which is
approximately Nu. 80. These are issues that the world must look into and find
solutions for them.
The New
Development Paradigm, which is holistic in nature, is intended to be one of its
solutions. Furthermore, seeing the authenticity of the above-mentioned pressing
issues, Bhutan’s report to United Nation General Assembly is intended to ensure
that happiness is adopted as one of the components in the post 2015 plans and
policies and also happiness and wellbeing be included in the sustainable
development goals. The report is also aimed at creating awareness so that the
related UN research centers take up the task of elaborating the details and
mechanisms to proposed new development paradigm for global application (Royal Government of
Bhutan, 2013).
The new
development paradigm is guided by five important principles of which the first
emphasized on valuing one’s life and development with values is emphasized in
which benefit of one section of the society does not harm the other ones. The
new development paradigm also focuses on reconsidering the purpose of
development. Development in itself does not just include industrialization,
increased production and income, consumption and accumulation of wealth but
the need to change for a greater cause and have a quest for happiness and well-being. In a complicated world in this twenty-first century, people need to
lend their helping hand to those marginalized groups and moreover take up
careers that truly serves the general public (Royal Government of Bhutan, 2013).
But the new
development paradigm confronts various challenges. Most probably, the
challenges are about the concept of happiness, GNH. Different people have
different ideas about happiness. So, it is very much challenging to set a
specific agenda towards development with a concise definition of happiness that
caters on the needs of the whole population.
The next
obvious challenge is regarding the implementation of new development paradigm. In absence of principles or the historical
document about the practicality of GNH implementation, there is no formal point
of reference or benchmark to base any strategy with no implementation
strategy. All government agencies take it upon themselves to implement GNH in
the way they think is the best. Such cases have led to complications.
A simple
example is that some schools are based on GNH teaching technique. One part of
initiative to implement GNH was to teach students the essence of meditation. Today, students were asked during the assembly
to close their eyes for one to two minutes and meditate every day. Then teachers
were also advised to begin all classes of the day with a minute or two of
meditation. And as expected all student have to do so.
But the
point here is that I am not really convinced that this initiative has been
successful in teaching the essence of meditation. It has defiantly taught
students about the general physical attributes of how someone should meditate
but not the essence of the main act itself. Actually, this example of meditation
in schools typifies how GNH is being implemented as a whole in Bhutan.
The only
channel of formal implementation of GNH happens at a legislative level where
policies have to undergo GNH screening tools which include the GNH pillars,
domains and the indicators and only those policies and projects that pass
through are then given the go-ahead signal. But the fact is that this practice
is rather limited in scope of just a given birth of good policies, but
implementation is a question mark?
So GNH as a
new development paradigm has a long way to realize its holistic goals. For
example, Bhutan pledged at the Copenhagen (Denmark) climate summit to remain a
net carbon sink but the global greenhouse gas emissions from the larger nations
still melts its glacial lakes and cause flooding in its vulnerable valleys (Royal
Government of Bhutan, 2013). Therefore, we realize that GNH based development cannot
be achieved by Bhutan alone and humbly ask the global community to share our
vision and join Bhutan to forge a new development path.
References
NDP Steering
Committee and Secretariat, 2013. Happiness;
Towards a New Development Paradigm. Report of the Kingdom of Bhutan.
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