Gross National Happiness comes home
26 November, 2008 – The international GNH community has descended on Thimphu this week for the fourth international GNH conference. This is a response to a resounding call for GNH conferences to return to Bhutan at a time when they are being taken around the world.
Now that it is here what should we expect the conference to achieve? What do the gathering of more than 100 people from 25 countries and numerous organisations have to say?
In reality we should not expect too much more than some sound feedback and ideas. Many international participants believe that they have much to learn from Bhutan. Having been excited by the concept of GNH, coming at a time when the world truly needs an alternative to existing paradigms for change, they think we might have the answer.
The more relevant question, therefore, is what do we have to show them? This is the real issue and this is what we should be reflecting on – or agonising about. The world wants to know how GNH is working in Bhutan. The GNH journey, which the prime minister called a “pilgrimage”, is the move from a concept inspired by the fourth Druk Gyalpo to scientific indicators to policies and practical programmes in the development process.
What we do need to do in the GNH discourse is to face the painful truth. GNH is the value system, that has preserved Bhutan through the centuries, which the fourth Druk Gyalpo articulated through intuitive and reasoned wisdom.
At a time when that value system is under attack from so-called development and progress, how do we preserve GNH? It has already been accepted that we need the intellectual and academic construction to analyse our society today, to direct national policies, and to identify priorities.
On the instructions of the government, CBS has today come up with an early set of indicators, that at least show the current state of Bhutanese society. But that is going to be a slow process, characterised by lack of communication and coordination.
We see gaps between the GNH philosophy and indicators, indicators and planning, planning and implementation. Even as we enjoy the benefits of the GNH brand around the world, we are doing very little to make it a reality.
It appears that, while international conferences are very useful, national dialogue is vital. It is time to start talking to each other, listening to each other, and to re-think our national priorities, based on real indicators, to bring GNH alive.
“The plain fact is that human beings are happy only when they are striving for something worthwhile”
Source: Kuenselonline