By Zareer Hussain (AFP) – 14 hours ago
GUWAHATI, India — A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan Monday, killing at least ten people and damaging monasteries and other buildings, state-run media reported.
"Ten people were killed of which three victims are of Indian origin," Bhutan Broadcasting Service, the country's national radio reported Monday night.
The three Indians died after they were hit by falling boulders in the eastern district of Samdrup Jongkhar and their bodies have been handed over to Indian authorities in Bhutan.
Seven people died after buildings collapsed in two regions east of the capital Thimpu, an official at the government's disaster management unit said.
Bhutan's home minister Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said officials are coordinating with the district authorities to help those affected.
According to the US Geological Survey, which initially put the quake at 6.3-magnitude before revising down, the epicentre was located just inside Bhutan's border with India, 180 kilometres (115 miles) east of Thimpu, at a shallow depth of 7.2 kilometres.
Dorji said three people were injured in Munggar and some buildings had caved in, most of which were made of mud and stone.
The quake sent boulders down hillsides in eastern Bhutan, blocking roads to remote, hilly regions, he added. Homes and monasteries were also damaged.
"There are reports of landslides in some areas and power and telecommunications networks have been disrupted in eastern districts of Bhutan," Dorji said.
The Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel reported online that monasteries and other buildings had been damaged in Munggar.
Sherab Tenzin, district magistrate of Munggar, told AFP by telephone shortly after the quake struck that many of the mud and stone buildings in the area showed signs of damage, but there was no widespread destruction.
Teams of police and rescue personnel were moving out across the region to assess the damage, he said.
The tremors were also felt in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and in Lhasa, the capital of the Chinese region of Tibet, according to Chinese state media.
Strong tremors lasting up to 20 seconds were felt 125 kilometres away in Guwahati, the capital of India's northeastern state of Assam, where nervous residents ran into the streets.
Cracks appeared in several buildings in the city but there was no serious damage, witnesses said.
Home to just over 600,000 people and wedged in remote hills and mountains between India and China, Bhutan held its first democratic elections for a new parliament and prime minister in March last year.
The country had no roads or currency until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999. It also famously uses the principle of 'Gross National Happiness', and not common economic indicators, to measure national well-being.
Most of its largely Buddhist population live by subsistence farming, animal husbandry and forestry.
The Sorry Saga of Bhutan's North
Click over the map to know the differences
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tamiflu ingredient grows in Bhutan
Monday, Sep 21, 2009 Kuensel Online
BHUTAN - A vital ingredient for tablets used to treat influenza, including H1N1, is available in Bhutan, say pharmaceutical research officials.
It can be extracted from herb plants known as star anise that is found in abundance in Samdrupjongkhar and Mongar. The local names for the plant are Sengpashing and Wonbasinang. It is commonly known as Lishi in Trashigang. The plant is also found in Diafam, Radi and behind Dochula in Thimphu.
"The star anise found in Bhutan is of a different species but closely related to the one used to produce tamiflu tablets," said the officiating head of pharmaceutical and research unit at the institute of traditional medicine services (ITMS), Ugyen Dendup.
Tamiflu is a prescription drug, which prevents the influenza virus from spreading inside the body and designed to be active against all influenza virus strains.
Star anise, available in parts of China, is used to produce tamiflu tablets.
Ugyen Dendup, however, said that although there was a close relation between the star anise found in Bhutan and those found in other places, there was no study to estimate the exact percentage of the ingredient (shikimic acid) content of the Bhutanese star anise. "If the percentage of shikimic acid content is good, then there?s a huge prospect in the international market. But first there are certain exploratory works that we need to undertake."
But an ITMS report on the comparison of percentages of oil content between the Bhutanese star anise and the Chinese one found almost similar percentages. "The volatile oil content of Bhutanese star anise is within the Chinese star anise range," states the report. Star anise is not used for any traditional medicines in Bhutan, unlike in Vietnam and China where it is also used as spices.
But, according to Tashi Tshering of non-wood forest produce, under the agriculture department, they communicated with some Indian firms on the feasibility of the herb, but were told "our star anis was not highly valid". The health ministry, however, is awaiting agriculture ministry?s response to a proposal on the commercial feasibility of the herb.
BHUTAN - A vital ingredient for tablets used to treat influenza, including H1N1, is available in Bhutan, say pharmaceutical research officials.
It can be extracted from herb plants known as star anise that is found in abundance in Samdrupjongkhar and Mongar. The local names for the plant are Sengpashing and Wonbasinang. It is commonly known as Lishi in Trashigang. The plant is also found in Diafam, Radi and behind Dochula in Thimphu.
"The star anise found in Bhutan is of a different species but closely related to the one used to produce tamiflu tablets," said the officiating head of pharmaceutical and research unit at the institute of traditional medicine services (ITMS), Ugyen Dendup.
Tamiflu is a prescription drug, which prevents the influenza virus from spreading inside the body and designed to be active against all influenza virus strains.
Star anise, available in parts of China, is used to produce tamiflu tablets.
Ugyen Dendup, however, said that although there was a close relation between the star anise found in Bhutan and those found in other places, there was no study to estimate the exact percentage of the ingredient (shikimic acid) content of the Bhutanese star anise. "If the percentage of shikimic acid content is good, then there?s a huge prospect in the international market. But first there are certain exploratory works that we need to undertake."
But an ITMS report on the comparison of percentages of oil content between the Bhutanese star anise and the Chinese one found almost similar percentages. "The volatile oil content of Bhutanese star anise is within the Chinese star anise range," states the report. Star anise is not used for any traditional medicines in Bhutan, unlike in Vietnam and China where it is also used as spices.
But, according to Tashi Tshering of non-wood forest produce, under the agriculture department, they communicated with some Indian firms on the feasibility of the herb, but were told "our star anis was not highly valid". The health ministry, however, is awaiting agriculture ministry?s response to a proposal on the commercial feasibility of the herb.
Bhutanese refugees get fresh start in Ohio
By ROBERT L. SMITH, The Associated Press 1:06 PM Monday, September 21, 2009
CLEVELAND — The families from the edge of the Himalayan Mountains arrived in Cleveland last winter as other refugees have — poor, cold and bewildered.
They had once been farmers in the tropical lowlands of Bhutan in southern Asia. Suddenly, they faced an economy based on medicine and advanced manufacturing. A brutal recession ensured there were few jobs to train for.
Their Old World skills could not help them anymore. Or could they?
On a recent morning, Nandu Poudel, 18, and O.K. Basnet, 25, stood behind a table laden with fresh vegetables in the thick of a farmers market on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic.
Men and women in hospital scrubs and lab coats streamed by. Some stopped to buy the sweet tomatoes and the seedless, Asian cucumbers offered by the two young men in fez-like Nepalese caps.
Handing over vegetables for cash, Basnet beamed like an artist selling his work.
"Farming, it's what I do," he explained in labored English, pressing a palm to his chest. "And what my father did. And his father."
The harvest of 2009 is doing more than stocking urban farmers markets in a city with a growing appetite for local agriculture. It's introducing a new class of farmers.
Seven thousand miles from their ancestral home, Bhutanese refugees are tilling the good earth outside of Cleveland and making it bloom. To the astonishment of many, they are using the old ways to gain a fresh start in their new home.
Some see a model that could employ future waves of refugees — or at least other Bhutanese. By getting back to the land, a challenged immigrant group may be getting ahead.
"We needed to put these guys to work," said Hira Fotedar, a retired Eaton Corp. executive and a friend to the local Bhutanese community. "They don't know English. They don't read. Boy, they know farming."
The farming venture sprang from a partnership between the Bhutanese families, who are mostly Hindu, and the established Hindu community of Greater Cleveland, much of it from India.
A religious minority in the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, the Hindu Bhutanese were driven from their villages in pogroms in the late 1980s. More than 100,000 ended up in refugee camps in nearby Nepal.
America has pledged to accept about 60,000 of the refugees by 2012. Some 400 have arrived in Akron, Cleveland and Lakewood as part of the initial wave.
Soon after the first Bhutanese families arrived in Greater Cleveland in November 2008, Parma's Shiva Vishnu Temple befriended them. Temple members bought shoes for children, who were seen walking barefoot in snow, and began job training for their parents.
Sewa International, a Hindu charity with a local chapter, joined the effort.
Volunteers for Sewa, which means "service" in Sanskrit, helped train some of the men as landscapers and some of the women as seamstresses. But a bigger job source was needed.
"They kept saying, 'You know, we're farmers. We'd like to farm,'" said Sree Sreenath, a professor of mechanical engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the president of Sewa International USA.
Sreenath knew a horticulturist at the University of Akron, who steered him to Mark Mackovjak, a Lake County farmer with land to lease.
It's at the Mackovjak farm, in Madison Township, that a new trade is taking root.
On a recent morning, a warm fall sun beamed down upon three men from Bhutan as they stooped among long rows of rutabaga, onions and turnips. With gestures, Mackovjak showed them how to thin the leafy crops, and the Bhutanese fell quietly to work.
Indra Pyakurel, a father of six, once owned his own farm in Bhutan. He grew rice and pumpkins and oranges. Now he's tending tomatoes and other exotic vegetables. He's not getting paid yet. But at night, he leaves with bags of fresh produce for his family.
Pyakurel and his co-workers — Lal Bhujel, 57, and Rohit Basnet, 30 — represent three of nine Bhutanese families learning to plant, tend, harvest and sell Midwest crops. They take turns vanpooling in from Lakewood, 50 miles away, work the fields and sleep overnight in a trailer.
There's a learning curve. Back in Bhutan, the men plowed with an ox.
But the education goes both ways, Mackovjak said. When they first arrived at his farm in April, the Bhutanese asked if they could pick wild greens he considered weeds. A Google search on "lambsquarter" revealed a nutritious salad green consumed in much of the world.
Unfamiliar with pesticides, the Bhutanese farm without them. What they can't eat or sell, they pickle or jar.
Mackovjak, the grandson of immigrants from Slovakia, said he sees his grandparents in the Bhutanese — hardworking people seeking a better life. He also sees a needed expertise.
"There's a need for farmers," he said. "Most Americans don't want to do agricultural work. That's the truth. These guys, they love the work."
The region's Hindu community envisions a business strategy: an organic farm supported by its customers. They are pulling the refugees into the Community Supported Agriculture movement, where people buy shares of a farm in exchange for a slice of the harvest.
Already, about 70 local Hindu families have purchased shares of the Bhutanese farm, Sreenath said. The investment will buy seeds and supplies for next year, when the Bhutanese intend to extend their handshake deal with Mackovjak, and maybe pay themselves for their labors.
The long-term goal is to own and farm their own land, as they did in Bhutan.
Tom Mrosko, the refugee coordinator for Cleveland Catholic Charities, which initially resettled the Bhutanese in northeast Ohio, said the strategy shows promise.
For lifelong farmers likePyakurel, 58, it offers a priceless measure of peace.
Knee-deep in ripening cucumbers, a cool wind in his face, Pyakurel smiled as if he wanted to be nowhere else.
"Life good," he said, as he plunged his hands into the earth.
___
September 21, 2009 05:04 PM EDT
Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CLEVELAND — The families from the edge of the Himalayan Mountains arrived in Cleveland last winter as other refugees have — poor, cold and bewildered.
They had once been farmers in the tropical lowlands of Bhutan in southern Asia. Suddenly, they faced an economy based on medicine and advanced manufacturing. A brutal recession ensured there were few jobs to train for.
Their Old World skills could not help them anymore. Or could they?
On a recent morning, Nandu Poudel, 18, and O.K. Basnet, 25, stood behind a table laden with fresh vegetables in the thick of a farmers market on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic.
Men and women in hospital scrubs and lab coats streamed by. Some stopped to buy the sweet tomatoes and the seedless, Asian cucumbers offered by the two young men in fez-like Nepalese caps.
Handing over vegetables for cash, Basnet beamed like an artist selling his work.
"Farming, it's what I do," he explained in labored English, pressing a palm to his chest. "And what my father did. And his father."
The harvest of 2009 is doing more than stocking urban farmers markets in a city with a growing appetite for local agriculture. It's introducing a new class of farmers.
Seven thousand miles from their ancestral home, Bhutanese refugees are tilling the good earth outside of Cleveland and making it bloom. To the astonishment of many, they are using the old ways to gain a fresh start in their new home.
Some see a model that could employ future waves of refugees — or at least other Bhutanese. By getting back to the land, a challenged immigrant group may be getting ahead.
"We needed to put these guys to work," said Hira Fotedar, a retired Eaton Corp. executive and a friend to the local Bhutanese community. "They don't know English. They don't read. Boy, they know farming."
The farming venture sprang from a partnership between the Bhutanese families, who are mostly Hindu, and the established Hindu community of Greater Cleveland, much of it from India.
A religious minority in the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, the Hindu Bhutanese were driven from their villages in pogroms in the late 1980s. More than 100,000 ended up in refugee camps in nearby Nepal.
America has pledged to accept about 60,000 of the refugees by 2012. Some 400 have arrived in Akron, Cleveland and Lakewood as part of the initial wave.
Soon after the first Bhutanese families arrived in Greater Cleveland in November 2008, Parma's Shiva Vishnu Temple befriended them. Temple members bought shoes for children, who were seen walking barefoot in snow, and began job training for their parents.
Sewa International, a Hindu charity with a local chapter, joined the effort.
Volunteers for Sewa, which means "service" in Sanskrit, helped train some of the men as landscapers and some of the women as seamstresses. But a bigger job source was needed.
"They kept saying, 'You know, we're farmers. We'd like to farm,'" said Sree Sreenath, a professor of mechanical engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the president of Sewa International USA.
Sreenath knew a horticulturist at the University of Akron, who steered him to Mark Mackovjak, a Lake County farmer with land to lease.
It's at the Mackovjak farm, in Madison Township, that a new trade is taking root.
On a recent morning, a warm fall sun beamed down upon three men from Bhutan as they stooped among long rows of rutabaga, onions and turnips. With gestures, Mackovjak showed them how to thin the leafy crops, and the Bhutanese fell quietly to work.
Indra Pyakurel, a father of six, once owned his own farm in Bhutan. He grew rice and pumpkins and oranges. Now he's tending tomatoes and other exotic vegetables. He's not getting paid yet. But at night, he leaves with bags of fresh produce for his family.
Pyakurel and his co-workers — Lal Bhujel, 57, and Rohit Basnet, 30 — represent three of nine Bhutanese families learning to plant, tend, harvest and sell Midwest crops. They take turns vanpooling in from Lakewood, 50 miles away, work the fields and sleep overnight in a trailer.
There's a learning curve. Back in Bhutan, the men plowed with an ox.
But the education goes both ways, Mackovjak said. When they first arrived at his farm in April, the Bhutanese asked if they could pick wild greens he considered weeds. A Google search on "lambsquarter" revealed a nutritious salad green consumed in much of the world.
Unfamiliar with pesticides, the Bhutanese farm without them. What they can't eat or sell, they pickle or jar.
Mackovjak, the grandson of immigrants from Slovakia, said he sees his grandparents in the Bhutanese — hardworking people seeking a better life. He also sees a needed expertise.
"There's a need for farmers," he said. "Most Americans don't want to do agricultural work. That's the truth. These guys, they love the work."
The region's Hindu community envisions a business strategy: an organic farm supported by its customers. They are pulling the refugees into the Community Supported Agriculture movement, where people buy shares of a farm in exchange for a slice of the harvest.
Already, about 70 local Hindu families have purchased shares of the Bhutanese farm, Sreenath said. The investment will buy seeds and supplies for next year, when the Bhutanese intend to extend their handshake deal with Mackovjak, and maybe pay themselves for their labors.
The long-term goal is to own and farm their own land, as they did in Bhutan.
Tom Mrosko, the refugee coordinator for Cleveland Catholic Charities, which initially resettled the Bhutanese in northeast Ohio, said the strategy shows promise.
For lifelong farmers likePyakurel, 58, it offers a priceless measure of peace.
Knee-deep in ripening cucumbers, a cool wind in his face, Pyakurel smiled as if he wanted to be nowhere else.
"Life good," he said, as he plunged his hands into the earth.
___
September 21, 2009 05:04 PM EDT
Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The 7th Int’l Asian Traditional Medicine Conference held in Bhutan
by Yeshe Choesang ( editor [at] thetibetpost.com )
The 7th International Traditional Medicine Conference in Bhutan Administrative High school in Semtok district near Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan was held on 7th to10th of September 2009.
17september2009
The conference was attended by 270 medical researchers and doctors from 30 different countries. The most important guest at the conference was the Minister of Bhutan, Khadro Wangchuk who held a opening speech. The conference was also attended by the Minister of Health.
On the main conference the participating doctors and professionals presented their academic work and exchanged experiences. At the end of the conference the Secretary of the Organizing Committee admitted that Tibetan Traditional Medicine has a very important role in Asian Traditional Medicine and is also internationally beneficial.
The conference was attended by senior doctor Gashe Kalsang Norbu, a doctor from the Tibetan Red Cross Society, two doctors from Lhasa and Shigaze, a Tibetan professional and four doctors from Tso-ngon county eastern Tibet as well as three doctors from dechen county eastern Tibet. There were also participants from Nepal and India, the director of The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine Dorjee Rabten and secretary Thukme Paljor, doctor Dawa and Pema Dorjee from the Central Tibetan Medical Association in exile. Among the participants were also teachers from the Tibetan Traditional Medicine School in exile - Ragshi Tsultrim Sangye and doctor Nyima, the doctor of Meriling Monastery - Geshe Rinchen Tenzin and doctor Gashe Rabsal Nyima Woser.
This conference brought together medical professionals from inside and outside Tibet as well as doctors from the Himalayan region, Chinese and many foreigners.
http://www.thetibetpost.com
The 7th International Traditional Medicine Conference in Bhutan Administrative High school in Semtok district near Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan was held on 7th to10th of September 2009.
17september2009
The conference was attended by 270 medical researchers and doctors from 30 different countries. The most important guest at the conference was the Minister of Bhutan, Khadro Wangchuk who held a opening speech. The conference was also attended by the Minister of Health.
On the main conference the participating doctors and professionals presented their academic work and exchanged experiences. At the end of the conference the Secretary of the Organizing Committee admitted that Tibetan Traditional Medicine has a very important role in Asian Traditional Medicine and is also internationally beneficial.
The conference was attended by senior doctor Gashe Kalsang Norbu, a doctor from the Tibetan Red Cross Society, two doctors from Lhasa and Shigaze, a Tibetan professional and four doctors from Tso-ngon county eastern Tibet as well as three doctors from dechen county eastern Tibet. There were also participants from Nepal and India, the director of The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine Dorjee Rabten and secretary Thukme Paljor, doctor Dawa and Pema Dorjee from the Central Tibetan Medical Association in exile. Among the participants were also teachers from the Tibetan Traditional Medicine School in exile - Ragshi Tsultrim Sangye and doctor Nyima, the doctor of Meriling Monastery - Geshe Rinchen Tenzin and doctor Gashe Rabsal Nyima Woser.
This conference brought together medical professionals from inside and outside Tibet as well as doctors from the Himalayan region, Chinese and many foreigners.
http://www.thetibetpost.com
Beyond GDP: The pursuit of economic happiness
Don Pittis
President Sarkozy and the King of Bhutan seek domestic joy through pursuit of GDH.
Last Updated: Friday, September 18, 2009 | 3:13 PM ET Comments2Recommend3
By Don Pittis, CBC News CBC News
Don Pittis French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he doesn't like gross domestic product. And he is not alone. The King of Bhutan and many other people feel the same way.
GDP, as the economic yardstick is known to its closer friends, is supposed to measure how well countries are doing and how much things are improving.
To do that, it measures one main thing: money.
Now there is nothing wrong with money. Even Sarkozy likes it. But the big question raised by le Président de la République and his expert panel of economists was, "Is money enough?"
GDP isn't everything
GDP is a strange beast.
If you chop down a forest, GDP goes up. If you get in a car crash and everyone is taken away by ambulances and tow trucks, GDP goes up.
If you have a massive heart attack, a triple bypass and you expire on the operating table, you have just created a GDP windfall. You've generated money not just for the people tallying up your medical bills, but for lawyers and undertakers too.
But if you take out your neighbours' trash while they are away, or help an old lady down the stairs of a bus with her parcels, or sit down for a leisurely home-cooked meal with friends and family, GDP is unaffected. Well, of course it isn't. Who would be so crass as to put a dollar value on such things?
According to the economic theory behind GDP, money is supposed to measure well-being. And in a way it does. If bottles of wine or an iPod didn't make you happy, you wouldn't spend money on them. If as a population we buy more cars and food and computers and beer, we are getting more and more satisfied.
Measuring well-being
But there is a growing body of evidence that some of the things GDP fails to capture have a huge and measurable impact on well-being.
Political scientist Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, suggests a direct relationship between the number of neighbours you know by first name and how long you live. His book has many other good examples of the value of human companionship.
There's another great case study in the book Getting to Maybe, written by a group of authors that includes Prof. Brenda Zimmerman of the Schulich School of Business at York University. They spotlight a Vancouver program called PLAN to help disabled children whose aging parents eventually won't be around to look after them.
Although money was important to the children's future, they discovered that relationships were perhaps more important. "Relationships did not lead to quality of life," they found, "they were quality of life."
To help the disabled offspring, the group put an enormous amount of effort into building up existing — and creating new — social connections. And they found it worked.
Feminist economists have done a lot of work on this kind of thinking, usually rejected out of hand by "mainstream" economics. Unpaid and uncounted labour in the home is an obvious objection to the conventional view. But more complex and interesting are concepts like intergenerational reproduction, where crucial values that make societies truly rich are transmitted (or not transmitted) outside the marketplace.
GDP versus GDH
Perhaps the greatest master of measuring non-GDP well-being is the King of Bhutan. Several years ago, that South Asian country dropped the idea of GDP. Instead, its people adopted a measure called GDH, or gross domestic happiness.
Rather than chopping down trees, they plant them. People take it slow, spending a lot of time with their families and livestock, and having a lot of festivals. It might not work here, but the Bhutanese could have a few ideas for Sarkozy.
In the meantime, it sounds like France's new anti-GDP report, with the windy title The Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress Revisited, would be worth a detailed read. I plan to do it justice some day.
But right now, I'm going to go putter in the garden.
Don Pittis has reported on business for Radio Hong Kong, the BBC and the CBC.
President Sarkozy and the King of Bhutan seek domestic joy through pursuit of GDH.
Last Updated: Friday, September 18, 2009 | 3:13 PM ET Comments2Recommend3
By Don Pittis, CBC News CBC News
Don Pittis French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he doesn't like gross domestic product. And he is not alone. The King of Bhutan and many other people feel the same way.
GDP, as the economic yardstick is known to its closer friends, is supposed to measure how well countries are doing and how much things are improving.
To do that, it measures one main thing: money.
Now there is nothing wrong with money. Even Sarkozy likes it. But the big question raised by le Président de la République and his expert panel of economists was, "Is money enough?"
GDP isn't everything
GDP is a strange beast.
If you chop down a forest, GDP goes up. If you get in a car crash and everyone is taken away by ambulances and tow trucks, GDP goes up.
If you have a massive heart attack, a triple bypass and you expire on the operating table, you have just created a GDP windfall. You've generated money not just for the people tallying up your medical bills, but for lawyers and undertakers too.
But if you take out your neighbours' trash while they are away, or help an old lady down the stairs of a bus with her parcels, or sit down for a leisurely home-cooked meal with friends and family, GDP is unaffected. Well, of course it isn't. Who would be so crass as to put a dollar value on such things?
According to the economic theory behind GDP, money is supposed to measure well-being. And in a way it does. If bottles of wine or an iPod didn't make you happy, you wouldn't spend money on them. If as a population we buy more cars and food and computers and beer, we are getting more and more satisfied.
Measuring well-being
But there is a growing body of evidence that some of the things GDP fails to capture have a huge and measurable impact on well-being.
Political scientist Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, suggests a direct relationship between the number of neighbours you know by first name and how long you live. His book has many other good examples of the value of human companionship.
There's another great case study in the book Getting to Maybe, written by a group of authors that includes Prof. Brenda Zimmerman of the Schulich School of Business at York University. They spotlight a Vancouver program called PLAN to help disabled children whose aging parents eventually won't be around to look after them.
Although money was important to the children's future, they discovered that relationships were perhaps more important. "Relationships did not lead to quality of life," they found, "they were quality of life."
To help the disabled offspring, the group put an enormous amount of effort into building up existing — and creating new — social connections. And they found it worked.
Feminist economists have done a lot of work on this kind of thinking, usually rejected out of hand by "mainstream" economics. Unpaid and uncounted labour in the home is an obvious objection to the conventional view. But more complex and interesting are concepts like intergenerational reproduction, where crucial values that make societies truly rich are transmitted (or not transmitted) outside the marketplace.
GDP versus GDH
Perhaps the greatest master of measuring non-GDP well-being is the King of Bhutan. Several years ago, that South Asian country dropped the idea of GDP. Instead, its people adopted a measure called GDH, or gross domestic happiness.
Rather than chopping down trees, they plant them. People take it slow, spending a lot of time with their families and livestock, and having a lot of festivals. It might not work here, but the Bhutanese could have a few ideas for Sarkozy.
In the meantime, it sounds like France's new anti-GDP report, with the windy title The Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress Revisited, would be worth a detailed read. I plan to do it justice some day.
But right now, I'm going to go putter in the garden.
Don Pittis has reported on business for Radio Hong Kong, the BBC and the CBC.
Marta Mossburg: Happiness is no metric for a country's success
By: MARTA MOSSBURG
Examiner Columnist
September 18, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants his country and every other country to drop financial outputs as the exclusive measure of success and start using citizens' well-being instead.
This could be dismissed as a crazy idea spawned by a love-struck middle-aged man who drank too much Bordeaux one night while listening to his supermodel/pop-star wife strum love ballads in their palace. Or maybe it is an idea from the leader of country whose GDP depends on the Eiffel Tower and is desperately searching to become relevant again.
But economists are promoting this ruse. And so is Bhutan.
Bhutan is the tiny country wedged between China and India that enforces a dress code and restricts outsiders. Illiteracy is high and TV arrived 10 years ago.
There is no freedom of the press. Its per capita gross national income is $1,700, according to the World Bank. These are not positive statistics to most people.
But Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who chaired the International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (established by Sarkozy), references Bhutan favorably in a column in the Financial Times earlier this week. "Even before we convened, Bhutan was creating a measure of GNH, or gross national happiness. ... " Given Bhutan's background, it's like praising the country for keeping its people ignorant and poor.
This is the latest example of granting moral equivalency to countries that don't deserve it. Forget the fact that the country is backward.
His utopian vision reminds one of the naivete of Graham Greene's American couple in "The Comedians" who thought they could save a chaotic, destitute Haiti by turning countrymen into vegetarians. Will the world suddenly become a kinder, gentler place, the environment cleaner and people happier if each country starts measuring well-being instead of purely financial outputs?
Stiglitz thinks so: "What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong metrics we will strive for the wrong things," he wrote.
The problem with that mode of thinking is that it assumes an all-knowing sense of what makes people happy. More importantly, this takes for granted that happiness should be the ultimate goal in life and the driving force behind government should be maximizing happiness for citizens.
History teaches us that governments are not and never can be omnipotent. Those who attempt to be will fail, often horribly and at great personal and financial cost to their citizens and future generations.
And believing that every nation will agree with one set of metrics to measure GNH is folly. Cultures build norms over time that turn into values and habits.
Let's take the quantity of leisure time, one of the items Sarkozy proposes to measure. In France, home of the 35-hour work week and Augusts off, leisure time is highly regarded, often more highly than making money or achieving personal success.
In the U.S. that is not the case for many people, meaning two weeks off in the U.S. would make people just as happy as the French, who enjoy six weeks away from work. If each country created its own set of rules, how could countries compare themselves against one another? The tests would be meaningless, with each country claiming it scored highest according to its own criteria.
The bigger question is why countries should put happiness above all else. As Joshua Wolf Shenk wrote movingly in "Lincoln's Melancholy," the 16th president suffered from great bouts of depression.
"He learned how to articulate his suffering, find succor, endure, and adapt. ... As president, Lincoln urged his countrymen to accept their blessing and their burden, to see that their suffering had meaning, and to join him on a journey toward a more perfect union." Would a happy president have been able to preserve the Union and build a path to the end of slavery?
Examples abound of people throughout history who achieved great things not in spite of their suffering, but because of it. This is not to argue that imprisoning political opponents or executing innocents is a good thing.
But would a happy nation, one coddled by two mandated weeks at a spa, or forced to work fewer hours, have the will to defend itself; invent a replacement to oil; write the next masterpiece; or uncover massive government fraud?
And could a government that focuses on pacifying its people also be one that vigorously defends their right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" I doubt it. That is depressing.
Examiner Columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore.
Examiner Columnist
September 18, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants his country and every other country to drop financial outputs as the exclusive measure of success and start using citizens' well-being instead.
This could be dismissed as a crazy idea spawned by a love-struck middle-aged man who drank too much Bordeaux one night while listening to his supermodel/pop-star wife strum love ballads in their palace. Or maybe it is an idea from the leader of country whose GDP depends on the Eiffel Tower and is desperately searching to become relevant again.
But economists are promoting this ruse. And so is Bhutan.
Bhutan is the tiny country wedged between China and India that enforces a dress code and restricts outsiders. Illiteracy is high and TV arrived 10 years ago.
There is no freedom of the press. Its per capita gross national income is $1,700, according to the World Bank. These are not positive statistics to most people.
But Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who chaired the International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (established by Sarkozy), references Bhutan favorably in a column in the Financial Times earlier this week. "Even before we convened, Bhutan was creating a measure of GNH, or gross national happiness. ... " Given Bhutan's background, it's like praising the country for keeping its people ignorant and poor.
This is the latest example of granting moral equivalency to countries that don't deserve it. Forget the fact that the country is backward.
His utopian vision reminds one of the naivete of Graham Greene's American couple in "The Comedians" who thought they could save a chaotic, destitute Haiti by turning countrymen into vegetarians. Will the world suddenly become a kinder, gentler place, the environment cleaner and people happier if each country starts measuring well-being instead of purely financial outputs?
Stiglitz thinks so: "What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong metrics we will strive for the wrong things," he wrote.
The problem with that mode of thinking is that it assumes an all-knowing sense of what makes people happy. More importantly, this takes for granted that happiness should be the ultimate goal in life and the driving force behind government should be maximizing happiness for citizens.
History teaches us that governments are not and never can be omnipotent. Those who attempt to be will fail, often horribly and at great personal and financial cost to their citizens and future generations.
And believing that every nation will agree with one set of metrics to measure GNH is folly. Cultures build norms over time that turn into values and habits.
Let's take the quantity of leisure time, one of the items Sarkozy proposes to measure. In France, home of the 35-hour work week and Augusts off, leisure time is highly regarded, often more highly than making money or achieving personal success.
In the U.S. that is not the case for many people, meaning two weeks off in the U.S. would make people just as happy as the French, who enjoy six weeks away from work. If each country created its own set of rules, how could countries compare themselves against one another? The tests would be meaningless, with each country claiming it scored highest according to its own criteria.
The bigger question is why countries should put happiness above all else. As Joshua Wolf Shenk wrote movingly in "Lincoln's Melancholy," the 16th president suffered from great bouts of depression.
"He learned how to articulate his suffering, find succor, endure, and adapt. ... As president, Lincoln urged his countrymen to accept their blessing and their burden, to see that their suffering had meaning, and to join him on a journey toward a more perfect union." Would a happy president have been able to preserve the Union and build a path to the end of slavery?
Examples abound of people throughout history who achieved great things not in spite of their suffering, but because of it. This is not to argue that imprisoning political opponents or executing innocents is a good thing.
But would a happy nation, one coddled by two mandated weeks at a spa, or forced to work fewer hours, have the will to defend itself; invent a replacement to oil; write the next masterpiece; or uncover massive government fraud?
And could a government that focuses on pacifying its people also be one that vigorously defends their right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" I doubt it. That is depressing.
Examiner Columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore.
Sarkozy wants Bhutan model of development index
Press Trust of India / Thimphu September 15, 2009, 12:01 IST
If President Nicolas Sarkozy has his way, France may soon follow Bhutan in using happiness as the index to measure the country's development.
Sarkozy yesterday said that measuring well-being would make France's economy, famous for its short work week and generous social benefits, look more rosy.
"A great revolution is waiting for us. For years, people said that finance was a formidable creator of wealth, only to discover one day that it accumulated so many risks that the world almost plunged into chaos," he said.
Bhutan has as its development indicator Gross National Happiness (GNH) with 72 variables considered the pillars. According to Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley, in the wake of the global meltdown, the GNH development paradigm has become more relevant.
GNH has fascinated many an outsider, the prominent being Canadian-American actor Michael J Fox and Simpsons' co-creator Sam Simon.
The Centre for Bhutan Studies has grouped the 72 indicators under nine principal domains - time use, living standards, good governance, psychological wellbeing, community vitality, culture, health, education and ecology.
Scholars at the centre have even come up with a set of mathematical formulae that can measure jealousy, sexual misconduct and apathy toward reciting prayers among others.
If President Nicolas Sarkozy has his way, France may soon follow Bhutan in using happiness as the index to measure the country's development.
Sarkozy yesterday said that measuring well-being would make France's economy, famous for its short work week and generous social benefits, look more rosy.
"A great revolution is waiting for us. For years, people said that finance was a formidable creator of wealth, only to discover one day that it accumulated so many risks that the world almost plunged into chaos," he said.
Bhutan has as its development indicator Gross National Happiness (GNH) with 72 variables considered the pillars. According to Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley, in the wake of the global meltdown, the GNH development paradigm has become more relevant.
GNH has fascinated many an outsider, the prominent being Canadian-American actor Michael J Fox and Simpsons' co-creator Sam Simon.
The Centre for Bhutan Studies has grouped the 72 indicators under nine principal domains - time use, living standards, good governance, psychological wellbeing, community vitality, culture, health, education and ecology.
Scholars at the centre have even come up with a set of mathematical formulae that can measure jealousy, sexual misconduct and apathy toward reciting prayers among others.
Bhutan for top GNH and no mobiles
Published: September 17 2009 03:00 | Last updated: September 17 2009 03:00
From Mr Laurent Legein.
Sir, If indeed happiness is to supplant gross domestic product as a measure of progress, and if somehow the current French leadership and Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 winner of the Nobel economics prize, get credit for that (“Sarkozy recommends happiness as yardstick of economic progress”, September 15), the world would not be paying King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the former king of Bhutan (who graciously abdicated in favour of his son in 2006), the tribute he deserves.
For it is he who, in 1972, first coined the term “gross national happiness” and instructed his administration to construct a sophisticated GNH index (based on 72 variables, I was told by an enthusiastic bureaucrat) as a more holistic, and culturally appropriate, alternative to GDP.
GNH growth has since been the guiding objective in Bhutanese socio-economic and environmental policies. With universal healthcare coverage, high literacy rates, pristine landscapes and the purest air on the planet, this small, beautiful Himalayan kingdom certainly has plenty of GNH-improving qualities.
Oh, and did I mention that it has no global system for mobile communications or BlackBerry coverage anywhere in the country? That, for the duration of a short, blissful trip there, sent my own happiness index through the roof.
Laurent Legein,
Brussels, Belgium
From Mr Laurent Legein.
Sir, If indeed happiness is to supplant gross domestic product as a measure of progress, and if somehow the current French leadership and Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 winner of the Nobel economics prize, get credit for that (“Sarkozy recommends happiness as yardstick of economic progress”, September 15), the world would not be paying King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the former king of Bhutan (who graciously abdicated in favour of his son in 2006), the tribute he deserves.
For it is he who, in 1972, first coined the term “gross national happiness” and instructed his administration to construct a sophisticated GNH index (based on 72 variables, I was told by an enthusiastic bureaucrat) as a more holistic, and culturally appropriate, alternative to GDP.
GNH growth has since been the guiding objective in Bhutanese socio-economic and environmental policies. With universal healthcare coverage, high literacy rates, pristine landscapes and the purest air on the planet, this small, beautiful Himalayan kingdom certainly has plenty of GNH-improving qualities.
Oh, and did I mention that it has no global system for mobile communications or BlackBerry coverage anywhere in the country? That, for the duration of a short, blissful trip there, sent my own happiness index through the roof.
Laurent Legein,
Brussels, Belgium
Bhutan Hopes Bamboo Boosts National Happiness
September 15, 2009
The mountain kingdom of Bhutan measures its own Gross National Happiness, which is enhanced by its lovely forests. One tradition bringing down the Happiness quotient is the flags that are flown for the departed, for good luck. The more flags, the better. Now Bhutan's government is growing bamboo to spare the trees that are cut down.
The mountain kingdom of Bhutan measures its own Gross National Happiness, which is enhanced by its lovely forests. One tradition bringing down the Happiness quotient is the flags that are flown for the departed, for good luck. The more flags, the better. Now Bhutan's government is growing bamboo to spare the trees that are cut down.
Marinello's Story One of 'Gross National Happiness'
BY DARLIND DAVIS: SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
For years, Carl Marinello, a lifelong PGA golfer, and former Pinehurst resident, has entertained friends and strangers alike with his story of his career, including golf jobs in the Bahamas, St. Maartin, South Florida, New York and Australia.
Now Marinello, and the story of his time as coach of the Bhutan golf team, is the subject of a major motion picture, which is scheduled to begin filming in 2010.
The Bhutan golf team, a group of golfers whose average scores were in the high 80s and low 90s, rallied behind the teaching of Marinello to become good enough to beat the Chinese team at the Asian Games in Seoul in 1986.
Peter Cattaneo (who directed "The Full Monty" and has two Academy Award nominations to his credit) reportedly will direct the new film aptly titled, "Gross National Happiness," which refers to Bhutan's efforts -- launched in the early 1970s -- to officially measure happiness in terms of Buddhist spiritual values.
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The story began when Marinello answered an innocuous ad in a Florida paper beckoning: "Spend a summer in Bhutan training a team for the Asian Games in Seoul."
Antsy and looking for a challenge at the age of 40, Marinello, who along with his wife Marcia, organized the Moore County Challenged Golfer Program, was soon flying East.
Bhutan is situated in the Himalayan Mountains, landlocked between India and China. The King (Bhutan has since become a democracy in 2008) shared a love of golf and pushed the idea of having a competitive golf team. The king had his cousin enlist the help of Marinello to make that goal a reality.
The story is reminiscent of the rag-tag Jamaican Olympic bobsled team in the movie Cool Runnings.
"Their discipline and self-control was amazing," said Marinello of Bhutanese.
Some credit that ability to concentrate to Buddhist values, other said some of it can be traced to their participation in archery, the national sport. Archers must have keen eyes, a steady hand and extraordinary focus. Skills that can also be beneficial on the golf course.
The team members played their hearts out with pride and natural ability and the outcome surprised all, including the King, as the players stated, "We will win this for our King and coach Carl."
Combine the great underdog story with the serenity and beauty of Bhutan and the story is sure to stir one's imagination.
National Geographic television channel has featured previous programming about this breathtakingly beautiful land.
The hardship of living in rocky terrain is taken in stride and seems to cause little strain on a people who are tranquil, peaceful and beautiful. They continue to wear the traditional dress every day. But in spite of these ancient customs and surroundings, The King often wore his golf shirt and pants underneath traditional garb, ready for a planned tee time, according to Carl.
Cantilever monasteries jut out precariously from stone cliffs and the villages overflow with monks in maroon robes. Colored flags adorn the roofs of houses, as they whip in the wind to stir prayers upward to heaven. Nearby Nepal is perhaps better known (where Katmandu is located); the highest elevation on Earth as Mt Everest is considered the nearest link to heaven.
Amid this pristine setting, the original golf course layout resembled early Pinehurst, with its brown greens made of sand and oil. The course was a far cry from the Arnold Palmer-designed course that the Asia Games were played on in Seoul.
The ability of the players and coach Marinello to adapt to different course conditions is another remarkable achievement, said Marinello's longtime friend and Pinehurst resident Tom Stewart.
"Golf in the Kingdom was a type of fiction, but Carl is the real experience," Stewart said.
For years, Carl Marinello, a lifelong PGA golfer, and former Pinehurst resident, has entertained friends and strangers alike with his story of his career, including golf jobs in the Bahamas, St. Maartin, South Florida, New York and Australia.
Now Marinello, and the story of his time as coach of the Bhutan golf team, is the subject of a major motion picture, which is scheduled to begin filming in 2010.
The Bhutan golf team, a group of golfers whose average scores were in the high 80s and low 90s, rallied behind the teaching of Marinello to become good enough to beat the Chinese team at the Asian Games in Seoul in 1986.
Peter Cattaneo (who directed "The Full Monty" and has two Academy Award nominations to his credit) reportedly will direct the new film aptly titled, "Gross National Happiness," which refers to Bhutan's efforts -- launched in the early 1970s -- to officially measure happiness in terms of Buddhist spiritual values.
advertisement
The story began when Marinello answered an innocuous ad in a Florida paper beckoning: "Spend a summer in Bhutan training a team for the Asian Games in Seoul."
Antsy and looking for a challenge at the age of 40, Marinello, who along with his wife Marcia, organized the Moore County Challenged Golfer Program, was soon flying East.
Bhutan is situated in the Himalayan Mountains, landlocked between India and China. The King (Bhutan has since become a democracy in 2008) shared a love of golf and pushed the idea of having a competitive golf team. The king had his cousin enlist the help of Marinello to make that goal a reality.
The story is reminiscent of the rag-tag Jamaican Olympic bobsled team in the movie Cool Runnings.
"Their discipline and self-control was amazing," said Marinello of Bhutanese.
Some credit that ability to concentrate to Buddhist values, other said some of it can be traced to their participation in archery, the national sport. Archers must have keen eyes, a steady hand and extraordinary focus. Skills that can also be beneficial on the golf course.
The team members played their hearts out with pride and natural ability and the outcome surprised all, including the King, as the players stated, "We will win this for our King and coach Carl."
Combine the great underdog story with the serenity and beauty of Bhutan and the story is sure to stir one's imagination.
National Geographic television channel has featured previous programming about this breathtakingly beautiful land.
The hardship of living in rocky terrain is taken in stride and seems to cause little strain on a people who are tranquil, peaceful and beautiful. They continue to wear the traditional dress every day. But in spite of these ancient customs and surroundings, The King often wore his golf shirt and pants underneath traditional garb, ready for a planned tee time, according to Carl.
Cantilever monasteries jut out precariously from stone cliffs and the villages overflow with monks in maroon robes. Colored flags adorn the roofs of houses, as they whip in the wind to stir prayers upward to heaven. Nearby Nepal is perhaps better known (where Katmandu is located); the highest elevation on Earth as Mt Everest is considered the nearest link to heaven.
Amid this pristine setting, the original golf course layout resembled early Pinehurst, with its brown greens made of sand and oil. The course was a far cry from the Arnold Palmer-designed course that the Asia Games were played on in Seoul.
The ability of the players and coach Marinello to adapt to different course conditions is another remarkable achievement, said Marinello's longtime friend and Pinehurst resident Tom Stewart.
"Golf in the Kingdom was a type of fiction, but Carl is the real experience," Stewart said.
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