Bhutan is not exactly famous for being a technologically developed country. IN fact, you can find an interesting set of pictures in BBC titled 'Bhutan's happiness formula'. If you look at these 11 pictures, you can hardly see any touch of technology. Bhutan is perhaps the only country that has put value to increase Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, I feel that Bhutan is converting to a tech loving country and even the government of Bhutan is adopting modern technology too. Here, I am making a comparison between old Bhutan (a tech hater) and new Bhutan (embracer of modern technology).
1. Until 1999, Bhutan did not have television as the government thought that it would cause bad influence on the people.
Now, television is very popular in Bhutan and recently the government was forced to ban some cable channels like MTV as these channels became too popular among the young generation.
2. In the beginning of 1990s, there were just 2,000 telephones in Bhutan. At that time, there was one telephone connection for 700 persons.
Modern Bhutan has now 40,000 land phone lines.
3. Until 2003, mobile phone was a forbidden technology.
Now, there are 50,000 mobile phone subscribers in Bhutan.
4. Old Bhutan did not like Internet. Only in 1999, the government allowed Internet to come to Bhutan.
Modern Bhutan adores Internet. Internet has become so popular that DrukNet (The ISP of Bhutan) recently increased its bandwidth from 10 MPBS to 22 MBPS.
5. Old Bhutan did not consider Information Technology (IT) to be an important thing.
Modern Bhutan wants to develop in IT sector. In fact, Bhutanese government is now actively trying for success in Call Center industry.
6. Even last year, Bhutanese people did not know about blogging.
On 27 January 2006, the first blog of Bhutan, Bhutan Weblog started its journey and if you visit it you will find that it is a very lively place.
7. Old Bhutan had a negative idea about advertisements.
Advertisements are becoming popular as a medium of expression despite government's attempt to control the use of advertisements.
8. Old Bhutan did not have any private newspaper.
On 30 April 2006, Bhutan had its first private newspaper. Now, Bhutan has two newspapers.
9. Old Bhutan disliked computer and even did not like word 'computer' and tried to introduce a new word, 'Logrig' for it.
New Bhutan has its own operating system in Bhutanese language and it is called Dzongkhalinux. So, you can see that even Bill Gates failed to win against Bhutan.
So, you can see that Bhutan is really converting a tech loving country from a tech hating one. I know that compared to the western countries, these changes do not mean anything. However, when you think that the country did not have television just 7 years ago, then you should give Bhutan some credit.
Comment Preview