{"id":2329,"date":"2021-06-14T03:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T21:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2021-07-11T16:49:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T11:04:21","slug":"happiness-during-pandemic-balancing-individual-liberty-and-collective-welfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/?p=2329","title":{"rendered":"Happiness during pandemic: Balancing individual liberty and collective welfare"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Rinzin Wangchuk<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

THIMPHU, Bhutan: As countries across the world continue to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, a few including India and Germany are in search of a silver lining. Their quest let them to Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan country dubbed as one of the happiest countries in the world.<\/p>\n

Moderated by the journalist and the award winning writer, Gopilal Acharya from Bhutan, a group of renowned resource persons from Bhutan, Indian and Germany discussed the concept of Bhutan\u2019s Gross National Happiness (GNH), it\u2019s uniqueness and liberty in the light of Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

In a recent online penal discussion on \u2018liberty and happiness in Bhutan\u2019 organised by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in New Delhi, India, Member of Parliament Passang Dorji (PhD) said international friends often referred Bhutan as the happiest country in the world. \u201cBhutan might not be the happiest country but a nation with happiness as its national goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MP Passang Dorji said it was also important to look at happiness from a constitutional point of view. \u201cThe state actually has a constitutional mandate to create enabling conditions for citizens to pursue happiness. That\u2019s wonderful and we are proud of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Explaining the liberty, he cited nineteen-century British parliamentarian and philosopher who defined liberty as having individual choice, whatever it may be unless it harmed others.<\/p>\n

Bhutanese Constitution, he said enshrined that every person had the right to liberty, life and also to pursue his\/her happiness. However, the right to liberty cannot be exercised at the cost of others\u2019 freedom and happiness. \u201cBhutan has a balanced constitution that promotes individual\u2019s liberty and happiness while liberty for others are also respected at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

MP Passang Dorji, who is also a student of international politics, said that research has found that democratic countries had higher level of happiness than countries that were not democratic. \u201cBhutan, under the dynamic leadership of His Majesty The King, we have always enjoyed happiness. As a young democracy, we had three consecutive political parties ruling the country and that\u2019s the greatest achievement that Bhutan has made in implementing the quality democracy,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

He said that while pursuing Gross National Happiness (GNH), the country did not undermine the economic development. \u201cWe are saying, as a citizen, we must be able to balance the pursuit of spiritualism and materialism.\u201d MP Passang Dorji explained that economy was a means to an end that was the happiness.<\/p>\n

Fondly known as the Godfather of conservation of Bhutan, Dasho Paljor J Dorji said that when His Majesty the fourth King initially talked about GNH, it was about the country\u2019s value system. He said that His Majesty\u2019s message to the people was that the country would see development.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives are going to improve but we should never forget our value system; our family values, values for our elders and values for our religion,\u201d he recalled that the fourth King had always cautioned on losing these values that cannot be bought back once lost.<\/p>\n

Dasho Paljor J Dorji, who is popularly known as Benji, said, \u201cWe see GNH as a holy grail and very time we tried to close in, the grail drifted away farther. He said focuses, time and governments changed as the time passed\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s alive because of these changes and it\u2019s dead otherwise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dasho Benji reiterated his experience of people getting mixed up with individual happiness and national happiness. He said that as happiness cannot be measured, we look at it by a set of indicators. \u201cThe indicators like democracy for all, good governance, environmental governance and education for all pointing at the right direction meant we were heading in a right direction,\u201d said Dasho Benji who is the special advisor to National Environment Commission of Bhutan.<\/p>\n

One of the participants of the discussion asked if strict restrictions imposed on the people\u2019s mobility and social behavior could mean depriving people of their liberty and happiness. The question demanded the speakers to explain how Bhutan has been able to balance individual liberty and public welfare while fighting the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Responding to the question, MP Passang Dorji reiterated his view by saying that one could enjoy liberty only if the person respected the liberty of others. He said that given the current situation, the country is in problem and the nation must be placed before the individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe regulations are enforced to protect ourselves from the virus through collective efforts and individual should come after the nation,\u201d MP Passang Dorji said.<\/p>\n

Dasho Paljor said Bhutan was successful in managing this pandemic because all of us listened to a single leader, The King. \u201cTo keep the country and public safe from the virus, everyone must obey the rules and protocols,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A senior columnist with the Hindustan Times and distinguished fellow of the Antana Aspen Centre shared about deteriorating Indo-China relationship and what it means to Bhutan which is located right in between the two giant powers. He said Bhutan must be very nimble in geo-politics to preserve freedom and happiness.<\/p>\n

On the sidelines, the speakers also talked about Bhutan-German relations especially the diplomatic tie that was established last year. Dasho Benji said the two countries could realize this after a long wait. \u201cI hope decision makers in the government would take Bhutan-German friendship ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

A German politician (FDP) and a member of the German Bundestag, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, MdB said that Bhutan has agreed Germany set up honorary consulate office in Thimphu and Germany in recent years supported Bhutan in cultural preservation.<\/p>\n

* Writer is Executive Member of SAARC Journalists Forum, SJF and President of Journalists Association of Bhutan, JAB<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rinzin Wangchuk THIMPHU, Bhutan: As countries across the world continue to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, a few including India and Germany are in search of a silver lining. Their quest let them to Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan country dubbed as one of the happiest countries in the world. Moderated by the journalist and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,76,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bhutan","category-lifestyle","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/FB_IMG_1623620583241.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2331,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions\/2331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesasian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}