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A Green Interview Special Presentation
 
 
This Special Presentation began as an interview with the Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinley, the first elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, whose government aims to entrench and extend Bhutan's long-standing goal of expanding Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product. To put the interview in context, we prepared an original half-hour documentary film, using footage of Bhutan shot by Silver Donald Cameron and by Nova Scotia film-maker Kent Martin. For the film, we re-interviewed Dr. Ronald Colman, whose work on a Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia, Canada had led to his appointment as an adviser to the Royal Government of Bhutan – and his comments were so fascinating that we decided to post that entire interview too.
 
We added Silver Donald Cameron's writing about Bhutan as well as the Bhutanese manuals on Green Schools and on Meditation in the Classroom. Then Ron Colman sent us Cheku Dorji's article from the newspaper Kuensel about the contrast between Bhutan's organic farming initiative, based on GNH, and the deadly impact of industrial agriculture on the peasant farmers of India.
 
All of which adds up to our first Special Presentation. We hope you enjoy it!

  

 

The Bhutan Documentary

Where on earth is Bhutan? What on earth is Gross National Happiness? Find out the answers in this 25-minute video, a Green Interview original production.

 

 

 

The Green Interview with the Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinley

The Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinley is the Prime Minister of Bhutan – and his government is dedicated to increasing Bhutan's Gross National Happiness rather than its Gross National Product.

 

 

Interview with Dr. Ronald Colman about Bhutan

Bhutan's Gross National Happiness measures are based on Nova Scotia's Genuine Progress Index, which was developed under the leadership of Dr. Ronald Colman. (For Dr Colman's Green Interview on GPI, click here. For his biography, click here.)

Dr. Colman is now a senior adviser on Gross National Happiness to the Royal Government of Bhutan, and in this second interview he talks about the implementation and measurement of GNH policies in Bhutan.
 

Bhutan's Green Schools Manual

This Green Schools manual was compiled by Zenobia Barlow of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, for use in the school system of Bhutan. At a training session in January, 2010, Bhutan's school principals committed themselves to making every school in Bhutan a Green School. No other country in the world has made such a commitment.


 

Bhutan's Meditiation Manual

The 2009 workshop on Education for Gross National Happiness proposed that meditation should become a key classroom activity in Bhutan's schools. This manual, written and compiled by Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown and Shenphen Zangpo, was created to help Bhutanese teachers and administrators implement this trailblazing proposal.


 

Silver Donald Cameron speaks about Bhutan at TEDx Halifax

TEDx events are local, self-organized occasions that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a recent TEDx event in Halifax, Silver Donald Cameron presented an illustrated talk about Bhutan and its pursuit of Gross National Happiness, based on his visit to Bhutan in 2009 to observe a workshop on Education for Gross National Happiness.

This video is free!

 

Articles by Silver Donald Cameron about Bhutan

 

Other Articles about Bhutan