The Realities of Bhutan As Western Corporate Media Fawns Over Due Date of Royal Baby

By= Steven Argue

“China, due to their social revolution, outdoes capitalist Nepal, Bhutan, and India on all basic measures of real happiness from women’s literacy and literacy in general to life expectancy. These are real human gains brought about in the material world that bring real human happiness.”

News that the King of Bhutan and his queen may be expecting a child has sent ripples of adulation throughout the bourgeois press, always fixated on royals as some sort of super-celebrities. The anglo-American media are especially sickening in their sycophancy, but France, Spain and Italy are not too far behind with their ubiquitous gossip.

In case you missed it, Bhutan has a new royal baby on the way. The western corporate media’s propaganda is incredible. Here is a taste from Fairfax Media Limited in their article “Royal Baby Joy For Bhutan”:

“Congratulations from citizens of the “happiest country on Earth” have poured in for the Bhutanese royal family, following the happy news that the queen is expecting a son. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 35, made the announcement on November 11, in a royal address during the 60th birthday celebrations of his father, the nation’s fourth king. “I’m deeply pleased to announce that Jetsun and I look forward to the birth of our son,” the Oxford-educated king said in a statement, adding that his heir is due in February 2016. …The surprise news was warmly received by Bhutanese subjects.”

Warmly received? Happiest country on Earth? Today, the Indian allied Bhutanese ruling class remains extremely repressive. As capitalism and imperialism keep Bhutan poor, Bhutan’s Nepalese speaking minority, communists, and journalists remain highly oppressed by the Buddhist government.

Among Bhutan’s statistics is an illiteracy rate of 47%. The standard of living is so poor in the country that the king announced in the 1970s a new measure, the measure of Gross National Happiness based on Buddhist values rather than the material world. Similar clap trap runs like diarrhea from the mouth of the Dalai Lama, the deposed former absolute ruler of Tibet.

Bhutan’s king in a photo op: Modern monarchs try to act like “democratic politicians.”

Progress came to Tibet through communist revolution. With the overthrow of the Dalai Lama, in the time of Mao’s rule, chattel slavery and serf slavery were abolished in Tibet; Punishments like amputations of limbs and removal of eyes for escaped slaves, communists, and other “crimes” were abolished; Religion and state were separated; Life expectancy doubled; Education was provided to everyone for free where the average person had none before the revolution; Healthcare was provided where there was none; And massive state run development programs in Tibet today continue to raise the standard of living.

Fact is, China, due to their social revolution, outdoes capitalist Nepal, Bhutan, and India on all basic measures of real happiness from women’s literacy and literacy in general to life expectancy. These are real human gains brought about in the material world that bring real human happiness. Gross Human Happiness based on Buddhist values in a “quaint” mountain kingdom? That may play well among relatively privileged new age adherents in the west who often have their basic needs met, in part due to the wealth gained in the imperialist world centers through capitalist plunder of subjugated countries, but for much of the world, development and other advances are life and death questions. And far more than capitalism, it is primarily the efficiency of planned socialist economies established in worker and farmer anti-imperialist revolutions that can deliver the goods.

Prince William’s marriage to a “commoner” has triggered a paparazzi’s feeding frenzy. Meanwhile, the Prince, telegenic, unassuming, with a beautiful bride on his arm, has done more to fortify monarchy than a thousand p.r. mavens working overtime. And the British press continues to play its assigned role as royal boosters.

Bhutan, unlike the People’s Republic of China, never had a social revolution. It is a country with no separation of religion and state and was, up until 2011, still ruled by a monarchy. In 1958, the Buddhist absolute monarchy of Bhutan freed its slaves, carried out a land reform, and carried out some democratic reforms that elevated Jigme Palden Dorji’s position to that of prime minister. This was not coincidental to influences and fears the Bhutanese ruling class would have had of the potential spread of the social revolution that was taking place in China. The Chinese Revolution had, after all, during this same immediate time period freed the chattel and serf slaves held under the Dalai Lama’s brutal feudal system where amputations and gauging out eyes were accepted punishments for escaped slaves and communists.

The royal couple hosting India’s PM Mori.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter Indian independence, Bhutan came greatly under the influence of India, as did the other mountain kingdoms of Sikkim and Nepal. As India became a regional power, a repetitive reason for Indian aggression against Nepal and Bhutan has been their relations with the People’s Republic of China. Bhutan’s first Prime Minister, Jigme Palden Dorji, was assassinated by Indian operatives in 1964 for trying to establish more balanced relations with China. That assassination put the king’s younger brother, Lendrup Dorje, in the position of prime minister. Indian troops were then placed at the border crossing between Bhutan and China where they remain to this day.

Today, India is also carrying out a brutal economic blockade against Nepal. This is part of an attempt to unravel democratic reforms that have occurred in Nepal as part of India’s demand that Nepal not sell its future hydroelectric production to China. Near total silence in the western corporate media and by their governments can be read as support for India’s aggression against Nepal. My next article will explore that question in more detail.

-Steven Argue For The Revolutionary Tendency

Relevant Facebook Pages:

Revolutionary Tendency

https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionaryTendency/

Our demands then should be:
Indian Hands Off Nepal!
https://www.facebook.com/EndNepalBlockade/

Imperialist Hands Off China 别纠缠中国
https://www.facebook.com/Imperialist-Hands-Off-China-%E5%88%AB%E7%BA%A0%E7%BC%A0%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD-569057593198025/

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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL-QUOTES BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS.