Dear Mr. Thinley,

Please acknowledge my tardy wishes, both congratulations and appreciations, for serving the country in the aptitude of the first elected prime minister of a “democratic” Bhutan. In many areas in the country, some positive changes, which are noticeable, have taken place. This is an appreciating initiative. Honestly, you should, however, admit that the phenomenon of modern democracy is yet to be ushered in true guts.

Discrimination on suppressed ethnic groups continues in “democratic” Bhutan. The towering power and monarchy’s direct influence in active politics keeps going. The formation of the Bhutanese Media Foundation under the king’s initiation is an instance. The public’s fundamental rights, in many aspects, have not yet been guaranteed in the practical sense. The question of safeguarding national sovereignty is doubtful — foreign intervention in our politics is the same despite your claim that the country has stepped into the democratisation process.

Initially, your recent visit to Nepal had given hope to the Bhutanese refugees because many had thought that you would present yourself intrepid to speak of their immediate return home. You did, but more in a tactical way; it could be another ploy to keep the protracted issue as it is.

Not being an exception, like in the past, you did not overlook to say that your government was committed to resolving the crisis. Just hours after paying homage to the late G.P. Koirala on the 13th day of his death, journalists in Nepal busied themselves in running after your stories. Their grave concern and continuous follow-ups to your visit developed due to your refugees camped in their country for almost two decades. 

Dear sir, I was a little bit perplexed to read news stories in the mainstream media in Nepal where you were quoted as saying that the governments of both Bhutan and Nepal have given top priority to resolving the refugee crisis. You did not mention back-up points regarding how your government has been giving it top priority, though. Had it been true, the problem could have been solved many years back. You are also well aware of the fact that despite 15 rounds of Nepal-Bhutan bilateral talks, not a single refugee has been able to go back home.

I wonder for how long your “democratic” government will continue to swindle the international community by maintaining that you are solemn towards kick-starting the repatriation process at the soonest possible.

During the meeting with your Nepali counterpart, Madhav Kumar Nepal, you apparently thanked the core groups for resettling “people in the camps”, in your own words. As has been a trend in Bhutan, you were even hesitant to say “Bhutanese refugees” in the camps, thus, you addressed them as “people in the camps”. Often, politicians or media houses in Bhutan address us as “refugees in Nepal” or “people in the camps”, both of which are not the best terms. I would rather not feel odd to let you know that refugees from various countries including Tibet, Burma, Somalia and Pakistan, among others, too live in Nepal.  

There was no coherent basis to thank the core groups if these refugees were not from Bhutan. At least, you deserve appreciation from the exiled Bhutanese for extending your government’s words of gratitude to the resettlement countries. At last you proved that your own regime’s proclamation, quite often, at international arenas labelling those “people in the camps” as “terrorists” is misleading. These “people in the camps” are resettled in various Western countries as refugees from Bhutan, not as terrorists.

Dear sir, I am neither a historian nor a politician. I was a five-year-old boy when my father, besides thousands of others, was brutally tortured — both mentally and physically — for 31 days inside the “black” jail in Bhutan before he was forced to sign the so-called voluntary form at gunpoint in the early 1990s, the time when the mass exodus took place. What I learnt of Bhutan, though I am its genuine citizen, is only through books and from conversations with exiled Bhutanese, leaders or concerned experts.  

Apparently, I might be too immature to remind you about the history, which speaks of the fact that these “people in the camps” had a bigger volume of contribution than anyone in Bhutan to drive the country to this stage. Those politicians undermining the history of these great contributors, for sure, shall be demoralised by the standard set norms and values of “true” democracy.

I wonder with whom your government holds bilateral talks. India, that has been a think tank for Bhutanese politics behind the curtain, claims the issue is a bilateral one between Nepal and Bhutan, citing the fact that a majority of your refugees dwell in Nepal. If you are updated, a clear majority among 108,000 persons will soon reach the U.S. through the third country resettlement programme. Does this now mean, according to India’s definition, that the bilateral talks should be between your government and the US?

I believe you can’t deceive the US, the world’s biggest democracy, as you did to Nepal, which was an all-time-rubberstamp during 15 rounds of bilateral talks. There isn’t any alternative for your government except to expedite the dignified repatriation process through which those willing to go back home will remain blissful.

Thank you in advance for creating this opportunity to write you an open letter. However, I do not wish to keep writing the same way.  

Yours kindly,

T.P. Mishra
Currently camped in New York City

Adopted from The Kathmandu Post, April 8, 2010

Carter with students in Emory University

Although, he recognizes the seriousness of the challenges faced by the refugees, Carter is unable to intervene in the Bhutanese refugee situation, the Carter Center, which he chairs, replied Subedi on Tuesday.

The letter in response to Subedi’s petition  mentioned that based on his previous experience with this issue and his prior work in the region, Carter’s personal intervention is unlikely to have an impact on problem.

The letter further said that the US government, among others, has already undertaken a larger effort than the Carter Center could provide to bring about a resolution to the situation, and President Obama has made it a priority for his administration.

The petition submitted by Subedi on behalf of resettled Bhutanese in America on January 21 this year highlighted the gross violations of human rights in Bhutan and continued discrimination against the Nepali speaking population.

Commenting to the response he received from the Carter Center Subedi said, “This is how people in America work.”

“They recognized our small effort to alert influential figures here”, Subedi said, “I must thank Mohan Tamang and R. P. Subba for their valuable contributions to compose the petition I submitted.”

The petition made by Sudedi apprised Carter that pioneering organizations struggling for the establishment of democracy and human rights in Bhutan were banned.

Change has not really come to Bhutan despite the proclamation of democracy through general election in 2008.

Further, it reported that the Bhutanese government still feels revolted if anyone tries to genuinely criticize its policies.

Likewise, it highlighted that the notion of freedom of speech and expression, freedom of forming unions, associations and political parties are not a known culture yet.

The country will start the process for resettlement from next week, in Damak, where all other countries — United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and Netherlands — conduct processing.

According to reliable sources at the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nepal, the country will take over 200 exiled Bhutanese for resettlement in the next two months’ period.

The UNHCR has already prepared the files of those who wished to go UK for resettlement. The agency is looking for sending additional 5000 exiled Bhutanese for resettlement than earlier projection.

According to UNHCR, some 83,000 have expressed their willingness for resettlement while the countries have so far announced quotas for some 75,000 exiled Bhutanese only.

Over 30,000 have been resettled in the last two years majority of them resettling in the United States.

The resettlement of exiled Bhutanese in UK will expand the horizon of Bhutanese Diaspora, even creating larger network for building pressure on the Bhutanese rulers for guaranteeing human rights and genuine democracy for those living in the country.

Created on the lap of Armed Police Force base camp in Beldangi I, the security village turns to be a shelter for all refugees getting threats for opting to go third country as part of the resettlement.

The village contains only few huts where people recommended by the UNHCR, having felt the need to provide security due to increasing threats, are sheltered in. Attached is four-hut separate shelter called transit huts.

The first to enter this security village is Thug Bahadur Thapa of Beldangi I who has recently received death threats. Thapa shifted to the village in November last week along with his seven-member family. The Bhutanese refugee camps in recent years have turned to be the heartland of warning, threats and killing of public figures.

Security Check Post in Bel-II

Those kept in transit huts say, they would be soon pushed up for resettlement while those in security village have to wait for some longer time before UNHCR forwards the case to resettling countries. Currently, Tashi Sherpa, T. B. Poudel and Subash Acharya have been camped in transit huts.

Acharya says, this a jail life. No one is allowed to enter the village without permission and registering an entry is only through APF personnel. Conversely, those sheltered in the security village and transit huts are not allowed to go out without security escort. The world for them is the distance they could see through their huts and visiting relatives has been limited through phones. APF personnel provide security vigilance for 24-hours around.

Neither the APF, refugee coordinating units and local administration in Jhapa can decide who lives here. The sole authority rests on UNHCR to identify the family in threats and require security at most.

Few days after K. B. Khadka’s murder, Acharya also made a narrow escape to similar attempt. The only alternative to the Acharya was to accept this jail-like life. Confinement is better than death.

Threats are unending. Acharya’s other family members in Beldangi II Extension have become target after his shift. Mental torture to mother has heightened. Even the RCU officer has received threats for sheltering him on transit hut. He has received warning to remove him from the transit.

Poudel of Beldangi II Sector G/2, 46, who has been sheltered in transit huts along with his family since November 25, says he still loves to get repatriated to homeland but situation compelled him to opt for resettlement to third country at the earliest possible. His children stopped attending school due to the possibility of being kidnapped.

Sub inspector of APF Gunaraj Baniya said crime rates are in decreasing trend but threatening has increased in camps. Can the UNHCR and police provide similar veil to all families inside security villages if threats continue to rise in the camps? Baniya says no and adds, we are providing security to all in the camps.

The resettlement has already brought separation of the society that remained tight together for years. The security village and transit huts added sours to hearts that are separating but compulsion rests above all. As felt by Beldangi I camp secretary T. B. Gurung, separation from society on the eve we are departing to unknown destinations would be as bad as we left our homes and properties back in the country during eviction.

S.B. Nambang says people need to respect the individual rights and Bhimlal Dhamala stresses that people need to know the reason why they targeted  by armed groups while seeking solution.

Born in Bhutan, a Himalayan country of less than a million inhabitants, this woman will probably never again see her homeland; this photo was taken in one of the seven refugee camps in the southeast of Nepal where over a 100.000 Bhutanese of Nepalese origin – like her- have lived since the early 1990s.

This is when the king of Bhutan introduced a very harsh new citizenship law, which excluded the majority of the Bhutanese of Nepalese origin (called Lhotshampas, or “people of the south”) no matter how many proofs of citizenship they had. Most of them fled or were forced out.

Suddenly under this “Bhutanization” process, all citizens were required to produce tax receipts from three decades before (from 1958, not before not after) and even then, it was often not accepted. A strange “cultural cleansing” started in which normally cherished elements (language, traditional dress) became tools of persecution. “Some knowledge of dzongkha language” became a requirement for citizenship, so was observing the traditional code of values, dress, and etiquette of Drukpas, the dominating Tibetan Buddhists. This woman, an ethnic Nepalese of Hindu religion, had to flee. Her grandson was born in Nepal.

The situation of this refugee group is full of contradictions. These children sing in the refugee camp’s school an anthem to the glory of the Bhutanese king whom they never knew and whose father threw their parents – or grandparents – out. After over a hundred years of absolute monarchy, in 2008 Bhutan became democracy by… royal decree and it even held elections, although the campaigning was said to be carried out only reluctantly.

Thanks to international solidarity the refugee camps for the Nepalese are good camps as camps go – they offer schools for children, adult education, health services, etc. There are even sophisticated reflection bowls for cooking. What has always been lacking were perspectives. A few years ago, a few Western countries offered resettlement as a durable solution. It has benefitted until now some 20,000 Bhutanese and others are on the waiting list, which is good news given that the status quo is not possible – in October the World Food Program had to cut food aid to the refugees and to prevent more cuts it said it needs $4 million from donors.

The main obstacle to local integration is the Nepalese government’s refusal to recognize the Bhutanese as refugees (Nepal is not signatory to the refugee convention). Yet local integration – with subsequent Nepalese citizenship – would have been easy, because there is no linguistic barrier; the refugees and the host community speak the same language. As it stands now, the status of the Bhutanese refugees is very precarious: they lack resources, perspectives and frankly something to do. Livelihood programs such as waving are rare and mostly done for internal consumption.

The enthusiasm for resettlement was far from general at the beginning, because at first the Bhutanese were worried that accepting departure from the region was forfeiting their chances to return to Bhutan.  But despite many rounds of talks between Nepal and Bhutan no refugees have gone back and India does not allow the refugees onto its territory, which lies between the two countries.  Then, two years ago United States offered to take 60.000 Bhutanese; other countries ready to have Bhutanese come and resettle were: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, started referring those willing to go to a third country, and now crowds gather every time the list for departures is posted.

Once the refugees express their desire to be resettled and it is determined to which country they will go, they are given cultural orientation classes to prepare them for their new home – different for children and grown ups, and tailored for the destination country. While adults sitting on the floor around the teacher were learning how to pack their luggage to go to the United States, children in the cultural orientation for Norway were asked to write down what they knew before classes about Norway (“fish,” “snow,” “wooden houses”) and what they had learnt since (“democracy,” “how to use a toilet”).

The International Migration Office, IOM, a UN-affiliated intergovernmental organization arranges the logistics of transport of the refugees from the camps or other settings in the country of temporary asylum when they are being resettled; in Nepal IOM also runs the “overseas processing entity” which is responsible for the processing of refugees on behalf of the US State Department: screening them for resettlement, conducting medical examinations, arranging for travel documents, etc. A complex operation that functions like clockwork.

Because the “warehousing” has gone on for so long, the refugees are particularly well prepared to start a new life in a third country, but nothing prepares them for flights. The first one is on Yeti airlines from Damak in the south of Nepal to Kathmandu where IOM has a transitional center which softens the cultural shock by placing the refugees in a “Western” setting (dormitories, dining rooms with tables and chairs, sitting toilets) while they await the final flight to their new homelands.

The beaming smiles displayed by this Bhutanese family seem to embody the “gross national happiness” index, that was invented by the king of Bhutan (who boasts about the happiness of those Bhutanese whom he did not chase away from their homeland!). They are smiling because they have just been notified that they will be resettled to the United States. Given the unwillingness of Bhutan to take back its citizens forced to leave ancestral lands and the unwillingness of Nepal to let them integrate locallyresettlement to third country is the only available option, and it is now almost universally accepted among the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.  At the time of the writing, the family is enjoying their new home in Woodside, NY, having been resettled by the International Rescue Committee.

Anna Husarska is Senior Policy Adviser at the International Rescue Committee. Reproduced from Opendemocracy.com

In the latest incident, unidentified people kidnapped a young woman from Beldangi II camp on Saturday evening. Krishna Maya Gurung of Beldangi Sector A, Hut No. 216 was kidnapped by unknown group, Armed Police Force in Beldangi confirmed.

Gurung, 20, had very recently divorced her husband, a Nepalese national, seeing less possibility of being resettled when married to non-Bhutanese. She had already filed her application for resettlement at the field office of the UNHCR.

Police quoted eyewitnesses saying that the kidnappers had dragged her up to Mawa River that separates Jhapa and Morang districts. Police further said, it is not known where she has been taken to. Police said investigation on Gurung’s whereabouts is underway.

Only a few days back, a woman was found dead in Goldhap camp, to which police suspected she was gang-raped and subsequently killed.

Amidst increasing violence, APF had announced stronger security measures in the camps. However, the police failed to provide enough security in the porous camps. The security is strict only in main entrance while other sides remain neglected.

The reason behind Gurung’s kidnapping is unknown. Family said there haven’t been any hints of abduction before.

Writer with his 96-year-old grandfather

The same day we were registered at the Centrelink- a government body that provides income support to newly resettled refugees from different countries of the world. The first ever payment I was provided with was the Crisis Payment of Australian dollars 200 on the vary day of my arrival. Then, we were registered at Medicare which covers a most part of medical expanses of refugees. Next, were taken to our new home at Elizabeth. Now we at least have a place to call ‘home’ which we had been longing for.

New home

My new home in Australia is entirely different from the houses I lived in for decades back in Nepal. From a bamboo slum in refugee camp to a concrete building in Kathmandu where I was a tenant for years never belonged to me. My three bed room house at Elizabeth is more than that. Surrounded by brick walls I found heart inside it made up of my family and a sense of possessing it. There was all I needed, from snacks to vegetables and rice. There was a refrigerator, a washing machine and utensils. In a nutshell, there was everything my family required then, as well as, for future.

A dawn of freedom

Often in life we travel through many ups and downs. A moment of happiness makes us forget years of suffering. A pebble in a river gets its shape by continuous crushing and getting rubbed against hard surfaces. In the same way, I have stumbled over many potential obstacles and got sharpened by passing through harsh situation before I finally reached here.

In Adelaide, the third week of June was celebrated as refugee week and the volunteers supporting refugees to resettle in South Australia were well applauded. It made me recall seven years of my volunteer service for my community in Nepal where I worked for news paper and radio. However, my selfless service was eventually rewarded by manhandling me in public at Beldangi I on May 5, 2008 and subsequently threatened to take my life by cadres of Birat-led faction of Communist Party of Bhutan, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist.  As a journalist I had to speak up on behalf of fellow refugees who had no voices that made me target of this group and also those earning from forgery. Those days in which my brother had to shield the bamboo wall near his bed with an old wooden plank to avoid possible attracts from fellow refugees is just a memory left behind.

Now I do not have to serve an official or bribe him to get my work done. Warmth of human touch is sensational to blend me meaningfully in the magnificent mixture of South Australian culture. We have freedom from prejudice, conspiracy, nepotism and threats. Flooded by turbulent river for more than a quarter of my life from one bank to the other and through falls and underlying rocks, I am now in calm water free from fear. A dawn of freedom has just begun and I am looking at the eastern sky towards my motherland to brighten for the day so that the faces of my countrymen   would curve into smile that is longed for century.

Beginning new life

With Phagu Sautal from Khudunabari camp

It was nearly two years ago my family was chosen by Australian Government to settle in its land. Two years of crazy wait in camp has taught me enough patience that I needed most to assimilate easily in Australia. Eventually, we are in the land of our dream. It’s the greatness of the people and the government of Australia that opened door for my bright future.

Australia is a great country to live in. This is a safe heaven for entire mankind. There are playing rooms for children, prayer rooms for people following different religions and walking aid for disabled and senior citizens in most of the offices, hospitals, universities and business houses. Virgin nature brings spring blossom and Australians welcome refugees every year to share its fragrance and to rejoice.

Wild birds are not scared when you go past them. A caravan of deer let you a way through the road like cattle when you go for a trip to the village. People move freely until late night. The Torrens River passing through Adelaide city is clean and calm. At the beaches both man and water birds swim and fish together. The environment is least encroached by human activities. Almost all products we use are made in Australia that makes every Australian a proud resident of this great land.

Government access

In Australia what I like most is the government access to the citizens and migrants. There is a government employee to cut grass at your yard. Drinking water is supplied for free. Postal service is so simplified that one would receive letters in a box at the compound of his house, unexpectedly in a very short time.

All financial activities of a humanitarian entrant are done by Centrelink.  It also records of all transactions we make including our earning from a job, expanses and saving. The Australian government encourages resettled refugees to work for self reliance while it also provides income supports while working depending on their income and expenditure. Here, one has to enroll in Adult Migrant English Program within three months of arrival. However, if his language skill is of higher standard to the course taught, he doesn’t need to enroll for it.

There is Technical and Further Education which provides technical and job oriented education for certain hours in a week free of cost and some of the world’s best universities.

For now, there is a government house to live in on lease for six months, first month being exempted from housing expenses like electricity, gas and rent. After six months we are expected to vacate this house for a new arrival. However, government   assists to look for new one and settle in.

Charm of Adelaide

Although major part of Australia is desert, there is greenery all around ensuring healthy air in Adelaide. There are parks and soccer playgrounds at close vicinity. There are public busses and trains connecting cities to its suburbs while trams and some busses ply free of charge within the city. In all transports, there is discount on fare for refugees and humanitarian entrants.

Most of the vehicles are equipped with special seats for elderly, children and physically challenged ones. There are also shops, departmental stores and markets at different parts of the suburbs. The price varies from place to place and from time to time like in other places.

All health related services are provided by Medicare Australia at great discount for us.  It is illegal to buy or sell medicine- even a pain killer without doctor’s prescription. Hospitals provide homely care for the patients.  If you are sick, all you should do is to call ambulance and get admitted in the hospital and clear the bill.     Keeping attendant is discouraged.

Going through life lane

Born in a middle class family in a remote village of Samchi district of Bhutan, I had never expected to travel such a long distance in life. My dream to study high school virtually turned into asses when my school was torched by an unknown gang at midnight in early 1990. I would be a good cowboy if not a priest had I remained in Bhutan. It is because schools are open for the children of government officials, national security personnel and of course elite groups.

I was a small fish in pond chased away by a big fish into the sea. Now, I have greater freedom to move and also there are many who will listen to the cause of my flight. Here, I have enough time to learn to live. With long breath I am planning for future, nothing to hurry for. We are welcome as immigrants like million others to settle in this great land and build up ourselves and the country.

Interestingly, my 96 year old grand father is an honored resident of this country and will be citizen after few years. He was not recognized as a citizen of Bhutan where he was born and even served the government for over forty years. I am reborn in a right place. I thank the people of Australia who funded me and my family, especially my grand father to settle in their land.

(This is the writer’s personal account and does not necessarily carry the view of the government or the service providers of Australia)

Re-settlement no doubt, offers a great excitement to the Bhutanese refugees. The number of refugees declaring interest for resettlement speaks of this reality. The UNHCR and other agencies involved in the process are trying to capitalise on their initial success, to encourage more refugees to opt for the resettlement program. The resettlement process will continue and during the ensuing months and years, most of the refugees living in the camps will journey into different directions and make new homes in different parts of the developed world.

When we say ‘Bhutanese refugees’, we understand a ‘community’ that now spreads into a vast Diaspora across different lands. Here is a ‘community’ that is changing roots. ‘Transition’ refers to the adjustment they are undergoing and ‘transformation’ speaks of the need on their part to accept some vital changes during and after this transition. ‘Vision’ refers to a collective need, which will map the direction this ‘community’ will grow. The ‘community’ no doubt is going through a rapid ‘transition’, one which requires ‘transformation’ and a proper ‘vision’ for the future.

Community
People primarily identify themselves through communities. The natural grouping is inevitable, powerful, durable, desirable and more effective. It is possible to grow, rebuild and preserve common values when people live in communities. Commonly shared characteristics such as religious belief, ethnic origin, language, past history and social values have always been the basis of social cohesion among us. These values foster ‘we’ feelings in ‘us’ and makes us part of the same ‘community’. A community is not a human but must be humane.

The moral test of any community lies in how it helps for the development of its future generations. A good community enables and encourages its members to do their best.

Participants at the convention. Photo source: ABA

The Bhutanese refugee community has lost its political roots today. After resettlement in different continents, they have to root themselves new. Going forward is not easy, but we have come absolutely prepared for the journey. The good thing is that we already have a vibrant ‘community’ in place. We just have to rediscover ourselves in this new setting and move on. The key is to understand the value of social networking and display that inter-connectedness as much as possible.

Social networking unlocks our potentials and drives us to growth collectively. Collectivity creates synergy, strength, power and possibility in addition to individual efforts. Our social leaders, rights activists, intellectuals, journalists, writers, poets, artists, singers and community elders should realize that the concerns, hopes and aspirations of this community to grow – socially, politically and economically – are larger than the physical separation that divide us. They should understand the situation that brought us here, is not just an inventory of personal tragedies; it is a collection of hopes and aspiration for our future. They should act accordingly and leave some of their creations for the future generations to simulate.

Transition/Transformation
Life is basically designed to be transformational in nature. It is desirable that a community in a rapid state of transition like our’s should be strongly transformative. We ‘transcend’ from one reality to another in the process of transformation. Transformation is a leap forward; it is changing into new, going ‘beyond’. Literally, currently we are going through this experience, we are experiencing a new existence, a new way of living. Resettlement has made that transformation almost mandatory. It has also fundamentally altered the rules of engagement in our community. The role of the village head man, the priest and the temple in our lives, perhaps will never be the same.

Resettlement thousands of miles across, in countries with various political make and models and in societies; complex and hitherto unknown, could be full of new realities and challenges. Our own life experiences and norms of life sharply contradict with the norms of the technologically driven societies we are resettled in. In America, life revolves round the clock and the hours you make working, but we come from a culture that values social norm, traditions and rituals more than work. Our festivals come every month and we celebrate some of them for weeks. We know manual work not mechanization. We know the plough and the field, the crops, orchards, cattle, the villages, the rivers and rivulets, temples, monasteries, dzongs, foot trails, extended families, the ritualistic life, traditions, festivals and celebrations – none of these will be part of our social life any more. It can put a test on our families, faith and culture.

The west works, learns and communicates through technology. The centrally heated houses, bath showers, the western toilet system, air filters, smoke alarms, vacuums, dish washers, micro waves, barbecue grills, washing machines, dryers, home computers, online payment systems, traffic rules, riding a public bus system and trains, paying by credit cards, lifts and escalators, drug bottles with child lock systems, assembling ready-made (packed) furniture, child seats, seat belts, pumping gas, school admissions, tax filing, vending machines, cell phones or registers at work – for the Bhutanese people everything is an absolutely new experience. From food habits to work habits, from customs to culture, from ways of life to personal habits and etiquette – the need for change is absolutely pervasive and ubiquitous.

The westerner, whose life centers around these basic, routine experiences, is often shocked to discover that for many of us these devices are a first time experience. Some have expressed wonders knowing that some of our people had not known soda in their lives before. What seems so obvious to them is very complex to us. Often at times, they may be perturbed by our simple questions. Often, they have failed to understand this background of the refugees with any sympathy. It seems so obvious, that lack of technological know-how is a great impediment in this transition.

Many have not figured out how to use the shower for many months, and many have not used a vending machine. For a population whose roots are deeply embedded in an agrarian life and village traditions; and in whose lives a routine set of cultural values have always played a dominant role – this transiton is not as seamless as it has been generally thought of.

It is important to learn how America works. It is important to learn the mainstream culture and the English language. Even for those of us who speak English, American spellings, pronunciation and usage could be a problem. For instance, gastroenteritis is heart burn, petroleum is gas. Soft drinks are sodas. Half pants are shorts. Weight is measured in pounds, liquids in gallon; distance is measured in miles etc. The cultural gap is staggering.

Though, all Bhutanese resettling abroad are equally new to the west, those who are English educated and have an urban life experience will enjoy a higher leverage. For the elderly people with a rural background, the technological and cultural adjustment will be more challenging. They have to put a little more effort at learning new things and creating new interests.

The problem is that we cannot ‘transform’ you. We can only inform you. This is a bottleneck in this transformation. We can disseminate information that helps in your transformation. But information is only a tool; you are the actual role player. This transition may look arduous but it is just trivial and temporary. The real challenge is to root us deep into this society and start growing. The adjustment is going to be hard and dynamic. If you have transformed well during this transition, your integration into the American society is easy. At the end, it is all about choice – we can choose to do well or we can deteriorate. Choose to transform in the ways you think, feel, idealize and perceive – as individuals and as a community and achieve a bigger milestone or choose to ignore it and lament. Choice itself is a challenge. Studies have shown that people who have transformed quickly and integrated well have achieved more than those who chose not to.

Developing a vision
A vision should be written only in a few words or sentences. How can a vision be seven pages long? A vision may not even need to be written, a vision needs to be visualized. I am just trying to set up a broad parameter for that vision development and explaining the need and urgency of having one.

How can we shape our ‘tomorrow’ by making rational decisions today? What positive assumptions and expectations do we share for writing that vision? Are we in control of our future as a community? Visualizing what our community would look like in fifty years and beyond has been my fantasy. Developing an image of our own future is a motivating factor and could be in the interest of our community. From the vision we lay down today, our future generations can gain inspiration and draw a frame of reference of the times we are living. Above all, visioning stimulates the notion of change, which in turn will determine how a community may sustain its future or shape the direction to which it will progress. On the contrary, an absence of a proper vision could give birth to the emergence of some toxic cultures, which can infect the whole community. Developing a vision for our community seems to be the right thing to do.

Where does vision come from? A vision comes from ‘us’ and all of us. Remember, ‘none of us is as smart as all of us’. We alone are the best and the most reliable ‘infrastructure’ in the development of that vision. A vision is thinking about the next level, so it must be adopted only after understanding the new realities and its associated environments more intimately. It needs to be developed in tandem with the shared experiences, expectations and aspiration held by all community members. It should be intelligible and inclusive of the significant views and aspirations held by the community for their future. And lastly, it needs to be generated, articulated, owned and supported by members of the community who design it.

A vision paper should provide a proper vision rationale, but need not be too radical. For the first time, we cannot blame it on Jigme Singye, if things did not go right. We are on our own and the responsibility to do something is inescapable, excuses or no excuses.  Above all, we cannot let the future happen to us. The purpose of this paper is to begin that discourse and facilitate a discussion to that end. It wants the community members to think what possibilities and challenges exist in this adjustment and how can we make the best out of it. It wants to explore what is an acceptable model of growing our community and how can we achieve it?

That said; let’s welcome you to the future!  Imagine the Bhutanese Diaspora in the next fifty years and beyond. The 60,000 Bhutanese refugees who will resettle in the US will expand demographically. A whole generation of Non-Resident Bhutanese (NRBs) is in the making. The picture looks very good and welcoming.

Will the younger generations continue to relate and acquaint with other Bhutanese people in the Diaspora? Will they retain and protect their Bhutanese identity, heritage and history or be proud of their past origin? Will they read or even know the history we have gone through? Will they epitomize the lessons learned from the Jewish community, and not shred off their moral responsibility towards Bhutan? Will they survive the ‘melting pot’? Will they be threaded like one community, will communication flow among them?

The answers to these querries are definitely not simple. Time alone is the greatest tool which will test, how this community will move forward. It is hard to predict that future with any authority now. And we cannot simply hope, it will be better. Hope is not a strategy. We must try and do things worth doing to move our community in the direction we desire.

What can we do?

I. Self-Education: Read, Read, Read; Write, Write, Write
Education has two basic parameters – formal and non-formal. The Bhutanese people take formal education seriously, but the society has not quite learned how to continue education in a non-formal setting. They believe that education is complete when they write the last paper in their graduation final. Self-study habits have not developed as a culture.

Self-study is an important aspect of continued learning and enhancing knowledge. It replenishes ideas that are not available through formal institutions of learning. Nothing surpasses the power of education and organization in empowering people. A community grows proportionately to the number of bright and learned people it has. Educated Bhutanese should be willing to share time, writing both in online forums and regular papers. Our habits so far suggest that we Bhutanese are least interested in reading or writing anything. This habit needs to improve, if not drastically. As for any trade, there is one particular secret to improving our learning, and that is  “Read, Read, Read; Write, Write, Write”.

Make sure your children get a very good education. In America, education is free up high school. Grants, loans and scholarships are available to students quite easily to continue or complete higher studies. We should make the best out of these arrangements. Having reached a foreign country without any assets or money, we have to understand that a good education is the only key to our children’s future. It will be their greatest resource and the only best tool. Our hopes really lie in the next generation but we should never lose sight of the urge to succeed socially and economically, even during this transition itself.

II. Culture continuity
The ‘Resettlement’ program need not end in the ‘melting pot’. It is possible to continue existing as a discrete, culturally separate entity. It is important not to lose cultural values as it forms a continuum between us and the next generation. To this generation, the need to retain, preserve, practice, transmit and walk our youngsters through our history and cultural values really comes as the next burden.

That responsibility can be fulfilled only if we can compile, retrieve, repackage and re-use our own stories and pass them on to our younger ones. These stories should be durable, accessible, discoverable, affordable, transferable, portable and available to all, especially the younger generation. This is the new way of guiding, coaching and leading our community. And this probably is the single most important responsibility; our generation can take on.

We must achieve this in synchronization with the more important objective of integrating into the American society – politically, socially and economically. No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. Striking a balance between the cultural ‘melting pot’ and a full integration into the American mainstream can offer a very complex blend of opportunities and challenges. We must ‘think outside the box’ not losing sight of the fact that integrating into the American society should be our main objective.

III. Leverage your position
Leverage is the power to control a lot with just a little. Big doors swing on little hinges. Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever, long enough and a place to stand and I will move the entire earth”.

Living in the Diaspora is a blessing in disguise. Very often, Diasporas have the luxury of operating quite independently from their home state or host countries. Self-identified Diasporas exert significant pressure in the politics of their home states by engaging directly with third party states and international organizations.

We need a platform to responsibly leverage our aspirations. For those of us who live in the Diaspora, ABA could be a good start but it needs to do more. We must also not forget that our community in Bhutan hope on us to speak for their freedom. Today, we are ‘free’ to speak for the ‘freedom’ of others. We must use this freedom to rally the same hope and aspirations for other Bhutanese who are still living under authoritarian rule. We must now expand outwards and speak for those who are going through similar situations, we once went through.

We can leverage support for the growth of free media inside Bhutan as well as in exile. We can also lobby or pressurize Bhutanese authorities to scrap laws that do not serve the democratic interests of the Bhutanese people. Asking the Bhutanese government to legislate laws to grant ‘dual citizenship’ to all Bhutanese settled abroad or persuading the Bhutanese government to open a full fledged Embassy of the United States in Thimphu and vice versa could also be in our agenda. In the long run, we can constitute investment teams of NRB entrepreneurs who will invest and own properties in Bhutan. Let’s have a vision that we can.

IV. Do not play the southern gallery
It is quite habitual that our people tend to relate the Bhutanese movement only in the context of the southern Bhutanese problem. As we mix and mingle with the people in the host countries, it may be wise not to play from the southern gallery. That has never been the spirit of the Bhutanese movement and it will be totally unfair to do so.

V. Our goals have post has not shifted
There was this notion that the Bhutanese ‘movement’ will naturally die down when some people leave the camps for resettlement. That is not true because all the people will not leave the camps, and not all people who leave the camps will leave the ‘movement’.

Let’s remember that our goal posts have not shifted, whether we are in Nepal or in America. Human rights, democracy, good governance, rule of law, right to expression, right to citizenship etc are the flesh and bones that kindle the spirit of the Bhutanese movement. Our lives resonate that reality as long as history can safely deliver that message to people, who are interested in truth. As permanent residents and citizens in America, we can still respect that movement and support it morally.

VI. Useful Media
The media, its content and its messages are powerful socializing agents, which can help or hurt our socialization process. Online media such as the internet can criss cross and thread every section of our community. As a tool for mass communication the internet can is useful for discovering each other, exchanging information, educating our people,  or exploring our history. Internet forums provide a platform where we can dialogue and reconcile views. We can meet, discuss, iron out differences and discover solutions to our problems. The nexus between the media and the community has always been very close.

In developing a vision for the community, the media’s role is crucial. It can generate ideas by initiating forum discussions or directly solicit ideas from people. There is no subject matter expert in this area, but together, we can always find great ideas to move our community forward.
(This is the paper Subba presented at the convention of the Association of Bhutanese in America on July 4, 2009. For direct communication with the writer, write him to: rpsubba@gmail.com)

Rizal is one of the leaders opposing resettlement process and still advocates for repatriation of all exiled Bhutanese to their homesteads.

Rizal family entered the IOM exit camp in Kathmandu on Sunday morning, 24 hours before flying. IOM allows such entry to families of political and human rights leaders and few facing threats.

Rizal, when asked, denied saying that his sons and daughter-in-law are flying under resettlement.

Details will follow.

“I will contribute this amount for the democratic struggle in Bhutan but that should hit the success”, she says, followed by the recitation of a patriotic poem she had jotted after five months of her forcible eviction from her homeland.

The three daughters

Perhaps, her lips easily reflected the words of sentiments for that land where she born: against the Druk regime’s suppression on Nepali-ethnic Bhutanese, depiction of the fate of evictees and obviously a pro-democratic. Hardly had she stopped crying, once she started reciting her poem, quite for some time, clearly to mean she still posed a deep-rooted sense of respect, love and devotion towards her birthplace, Bhutan.  

For Suk Maya Rai, 32, of Jhapa-based Beldangi-II camp under Sector I/3-22, her life after resettlement in Alta municipality in Norway, two hours by plane to reach the capital city, Oslo, has explored more possibilities of earning a dignified and better living. “Our life in Norway is perfect and cool”, says Suk Maya over a more-than-one-hour long telephonic conversation.

A long-posed hallucination of Suk Maya has come to reality; all of her five children are going to school and are succeeding in the field of studies. “I along with the eldest daughter, Sara, will be joining grade 11 once we finish the language classes”, says Suk Maya, “now I can well communicate with people in Norwegian language.”

The first-resettled family in this Northern European country in January 2008, Suk Maya,  was frequently tortured by her spouse who had a second marriage. “I often shed tears from my eyes remembering my offended life inside refugee camp. Many neighbors used to dominate me for being a rape-victim family.”

Suk Maya

The fresh memories of both physical and mental torture given by her spouse haven’t yet been erased from her mind. She makes an appeal to the UNHCR office in Nepal not to refer her spouse’s case for resettlement in Norway. “I have heard that he (her husband) is trying to rejoin with me here in Norway. I would be unsafe if he comes here and stays with me”, adds Suk Maya.  

These days the Rai family receives 32, 000/- Kroner (around 5,000 US dollars) per month, increased by 12,000 Kroner to the amount she used to get some months back, for managing the basic expenses to earn her living. Suk Maya need not have to pay rental charges for a small-and-beautiful house, situated some 2,000 km away from the capital city, government pays for her.

The financial support provided by the government is sufficient for this small family. “My caseworker provide me even with some extra money upon my request, particularly during the time of festival”, adds Suk Maya, a devotee of Christianity.  

It may, for many of us, be mind-boggling tip to hear at but Suk Maya says the Alta Kommune (Fliktning Kontur) has provided her with three house workers; they assist her to look after her children, clean and manage the house, among other domestic works. “They sometimes try to assist me even to take off my clothes and shoes when I back to home from my language classes but I have never given them this opportunity”, says Suk Maya, maintaining that she never has a sense of getting ‘arrogant at’ when she earns better and maintains standard living.

When asked about how she gets updated on news related to Bhutan and refugees, Suk Maya, flashing some signals of happiness says, “You know? I learnt about internet facilities. I often visit news sites; sometimes seek help of my children who are used to with it.” Lack of confidence in using the e-mail, however, yet continues as she says she would not create her own e-mail ID unless she is entirely used to with it.

Suk Maya’s immense attainment in being competent to learn about the internet facilities is a big testament to the fact that where there is will there is a way, also a ‘challenge’ to those who say uneducated people can’t do anything after resettlement in third countries.

Suk Maya's family before leaving Nepal

For Suk Maya, acquiring formal education had been a mere dream almost before she boarded the plane (at the age of 31) from Nepal to Norway. Now the countdown has begun. She will join her grade 11, in her own words, once she completes her language classes, thanks to the UNHCR for its sincere effort to resettle this vulnerable family.

“Many people have discouraged me from getting resettled in third country. The reasons they used to cite was that women would be unsafe in western lands, however, now I can say it is not like that. I am safe; I have the privilege of spending a dignified and most respectable life here in Norway”, says Suk Maya, while during a recall of her past days inside UNHCR-managed camps in Nepal.  

The resettlement of at least nine Bhutanese families, 49 individuals in Alta municipality, has added in her the degree of cheerfulness. All of them share the same room during the schooling days for their language classes. “I often visit my Bhutanese friend’s apartment. Whenever I wish to be there I make a call at the municipality and seek for the vehicle, they will then drop me there and help me get back to my house”, adds she.

 “Earlier I didn’t finish reciting the whole content of my poem. Can I continue it now?” she questions. As she keeps reciting the poem, a buzzing sound was distinctly heard as if she was banging on chest with her hands, probably in an attempt to show her degree of devotion towards her long-awaited final destination, Bhutan. 

 “Jeg elsker Bhutan. Jeg liker å reise hjem en dag”, adds Suk Maya, which means ‘I love Bhutan’. ‘I like to return home one day.’

(This is the third part of the series ‘A mother’s long journey’. See Part-I and Part  II.