Don’t forget to come home

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Bhutan is developing and the economy is still growing, when it comes to the labor force, it leads to brain drain at times. It is because people are underemployed or unemployed sometimes and they look for opportunities outside Bhutan. There are also people who want to upgrade their learning with lack of universities and high skill imparting centers in the home country.  A chunk of economically benefitting people choose to go abroad. For example during 2018 election 3500 Bhutanese were found to register for the Postal ballot who were living and studying abroad. Those people might be the one who are going to come home some years later.

Recently, a number of my friends who choose to go abroad for studying and some to work overseas after graduation. I feel happy that they are going to see and experience the world beyond Bhutan. But at the same time I am worried are they going to come back home? Are they going to come home to celebrate those festivals and cultural events, or to look after the aging parents, and the joyful community?

Whenever we look at those developed countries, there are lots of public facilities and economic opportunities that Bhutan cannot compare with. I don’t know if I am biased that lot of young people would want to live a better life with high living standard. For this we end up compromising our identity and our nation building capacity although a lot of remittance might come. What if people who go abroad never come back? Firstly, a potential human resource is lost for the country, secondly, those people who would choose to live abroad I wonder what their identity would be? Their progeny would start to wonder where they actually belong. Home country would just be foreign land for them.

I just want to give a signal that we may go out for making live better but don’t we think that a tree should love the ground where it stands. The government has invested a lot of money in our education and health so that our parents don’t feel the burden in raising us to educated person. Don’t we think we should be grateful to our Kings and the democracy who always protected us and made us who we are today? The country is developing and ample of opportunities to make a living out of it. It’s an opportunity to create job instead of finding. It is more of making the best of what we have than to find.

Wherever we may go, may the Bhutanese shall remain always Bhutanese with their heart and soul. Never forget to come back home. The country is in need of people who will help to build the nation. Our loved ones, our society need them. Don’t be late to realize that you lost the pure heart while in search of gold in the foreign land.

Palden Drukpa Gyalo!!!