Word: bhutan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...year--including by members of his own party--Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appealed to the public over the heads of the naysayers and won a landslide election victory. Only trouble is, sometimes, clear leadership engenders not too little trust but too much. In the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the reformist King Jigme Singye Wangchuck is so popular that he is having trouble persuading his people to replace his feudal monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. That's not the sort of popularity that is likely to give Jacques Chirac problems anytime soon. [This article contains a table. Please...
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan is trying to abolish himself. The enlightened monarch of this tiny Himalayan kingdom, who has introduced such innovations as the use of a Gross National Happiness index to measure Bhutan's wealth, is now urging his people to get rid of him. "Monarchy is not the best form of government," he said last month at a stop on his anti-royalty campaign in the northern town of Haa. "It has many flaws...
...year-old King, who has ruled Bhutan for 31 years, has been urging his subjects to replace its absolute monarchy with a 34-point constitution and a two-party parliamentary democracy, in part because he can't guarantee the quality of future kings. "In times to come, if the people were fortunate, the heir to the throne would be a dedicated and capable person," he said. "On the other hand, the heir could be a person of mediocre ability or even an incapable person." The proposed new rules wouldn't come into effect until 2008 because astrologers have deemed...
...King Wangchuck, whose family has ruled since 1907, has been carefully moving Bhutan into the modern age, allowing in a limited number of tourists as well as television and the Internet?although the country's first traffic light, in the capital Thimpu, was deemed a step too far and the monarch had it removed. But for the first time, the King may not get his way: many Bhutanese seem unwilling to unseat him. "I look at all the problems the so-called democracies are facing and reckon I prefer the monarchy," said one young student at the meeting...
...camera to best use. Holiday photos are often more Addams Family than Ansel Adams and usually draw only polite murmurs from captive audiences. Yet an increasing number of photography breaks are helping amateur photographers tap their creative juices. Courses last from a weekend to a fortnight, in destinations from Bhutan, where students learn to capture the color of the Jambay Lhakhang Festival, to Iceland's volcanic landscape. Experts help to transform snapshot-happy tourists into travel photographers. They advise on lenses, composition, framing, lighting and photographic content. "It's about putting the photos in the context of the landscape...