Bhutan debates the merit of television

BY A CORRESPONDENT

17 May, 2007: The arrival of television in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan two years ago seems to have made a sea change in the lives and habits of many people.

Citizens of Bhutan first started watching television after the former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck allowed television in 1999 into his rather isolated Buddhist kingdom.

Since then, television has been blamed for destroying family life, bringing crime and juvenile delinquency to this peaceful land and undermining ancient traditions.

Bhutan is a country that lived in an almost medieval environment a generation ago. When the first jeep arrived in Thimpu, capital Bhutan, in the 1960s, locals ran in fear of the “fire-breathing dragon.” Others brought it cattle feed.

Less than four decades later, Bhutan has been bombarded with 45 television channels of the outside world, reports news agency Reuters.

King Wangchuck has famously proposed that Gross National Happiness was more important to Bhutan than Gross National Product (GDP), that traditions, trust and the environment are as important as the ruthless pursuit of material gain.

But what really happened was that, almost overnight, the Bhutanese people were presented with a very different, alternative vision – of glamour and wealth – and fed with a surfeit of advertisements for products they never knew they had missed.

Bhutan’s Information and Communication Minister Leki Dorji says the government is beginning to wonder what television has unleashed on the sleepy kingdom.

Leki Dorji wonders whether television makes one more happy or less happy. He thinks television raises one’s expectations and probably makes one more unhappy.

However, many people of Bhutan seem to disagree. A study carried out by the Information Ministry in 2003 had found that many people felt that television had broadened their minds.

Of those interviewed, over 66% said television had had a positive impact on society, while just 7.3% disagreed.

Yet, critics of television press on regardless, arguing that petty crime and recreational drugs, almost unheard of a decade ago, have arrived in Bhutan in the last one decade.

According to Phuntsho Rapten of the Centre for Bhutan Studies, advertisements create desires, which cannot be satisfied by the people’s current economic position, and crimes and corruption are often born out of economic desires.

Not all Bhutanese parents like the kind of education children get from television. The country’s schools have witnessed a craze for American wrestling after television was introduced. Teachers have complained that children in urban areas are watching television late into the night and, as a result, are less focused in class.

The government of Bhutan responded by banning Ten Sports, which carried the wrestling, as well as MTV and Fashion TV.

However, the government’s action was only partly successful – wrestling appeared on other channels, and football fans are sore that the ban has deprived them of Europe’s Champions League.

Television, it is argued, has its benefits, too. Like, television can bring families together in the evening, and keep fathers at home rather than out drinking. Alcohol is the leading cause of death in Bhutan.