Bhutan, Indonesia, and Our Mindset

Bhutan means "Land of the Thunder Dragon". Awesome, man (source: www.crwflags.com)

 Have you ever heard a country named Bhutan ? Yes ? Even just a glimpse, or back at the childhood memories when you were trying to memorize bunch of nation’s flags in “Atlas” ? Then we’re the same. Even as an International Relations student, I admit that I studied so little about tiny countries, such as Bhutan (kidding, I actually studied so little while I was in college. hehehehe). Anyway, I got a little insight about Bhutan today in one of the TED videos. Turns out that Bhutan is indeed a small country, but carries big dreams and strong principles. 

Bhutan is located in South Asia, specifically on Himalayan areas. They are a tiny country settled between China and India. Yes, CHINA and INDIA. Two major developing countries in the world. And what I mean by “two major developing countries” is actually “two gigantic environmental destroyer that sacrifices their own ecosystem for GDP growth”. Such an opposite to Bhutan. This small country is indeed talking about “Balance”. Between economic growth and nature conservation. We know that stance and principle is not easy, but they have been working on a solution to that. As the Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay, stated, “the problem is obviously people. They feel the urgency to produce more. And that has the risk of coming into conflict with the laws of nature”. Tobgay then explain in the TED talks, that the solution is a joint program with WWF, called Bhutan for Life. It is an initiative of alternate funding to accommodate Bhutan needs for large-scale nature conservation program in the next 15 years. Tobgay believed that the program could help the economy of Bhutan as well. 

At this point, I realized that all of those Bhutan-thing, is very familiar. Yes, Bhutan is a small replica of Indonesia. We are a huge developing country, with enormous natural resources and hundreds of different culture, but we are still striving to survive. Especially in terms of natural resources, forest, and culture. We own maybe a thousand times of Bhutan’s forest area back then. But now, they were being burned to the ground. The forest in Kalimantan and Sumatra are also decreased, thanks to palm plantation. Hmm, anyway I didn’t want to mention more because I want this writing to be a positive message :) The point is that we realized the root of the problems is “people” mindset, as stated by Tobgay. Those who wants to produce more, but care less about nature. Then what we can do about this (again and again) is change ourself first !

 Have you ever throwing garbage in the street ? Have you ever dump your plastic trash when hiking the mountain ? Have you ever seen someone doing damage to the environment ? Then don’t do it again. This is the smallest thing we can do. You know what we can do more ? by planting trees, flowers, or maybe growing crops in your garden, or across the street and by persuade others to do the same. Yes I admit that I didn’t do all that I write so often, but I still do it sometimes. Why should we do that ? Because that will help our minds to get used to know nature. And shaping mindset is one of our biggest homework. Just like the people of Bhutan who get used to their forest and rivers. Before we can do big, we have to do the small first.

Tiger's Nest. Monastery and forest as far as the horizon goes.  (source: travel.paintedstork.com)