Michael Hawley on Bhutan & Happiness

Michael Hawley has been publicly talking about his work with the MIT Media Lab and the country of Bhutan for awhile. He now has a book out, a 5 by 7 foot 133 pound book. Clearly he’s passionate about what they’re doing over there and more obvious to me, the people.

The photos and stories are beautiful as he flips through the larger than life poster sized pages that rest against a large easel on the stage. Hawley's team at MIT together with Friendly Planet took over 40,000 photographs on four expeditions. His new project claims to be the largest published book in the world.

Stunning images and life-size portraits tell the story of life in this remote paradise of sweeping mountains and awesome ancient architecture. The cost? $10,000 from Amazon, so perhaps not on your Christmas shopping list.

A young teenage girl approached Hawley during one of those trips, asked him about 9/11 and whether he lost any friends. Given that Hawley did, she asked him if he needed a new friend, a new friend in Bhutan. Hawley ended up taking this young girl from the village of Trongsa and Gyelsey Loday, son of the head lama in Phongmey, and brought them back to America.

One woman in the audience beckons the question – “What are the implications of exposing them to our first world society and is this a good thing?” Hawley responds, "We’re always going to be changed through travel – its inevitable." Whether its a good thing or the "right thing?" In my case, it certainly was. My life has been dramatically changed for the good from living in ten countries around the world over the past twenty years.

Maybe not in every case however. It made me think of “The Gods must be crazy.” It also made me think of the Prime Directive from Star Trek’s Next Generation, which says the following:

"As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation."

Not exactly the same thing, but it still made me think of it. I’ll never forget a trip to Nepal in the nineties where we were hiking in a fairly remote area. Suddenly a bus pulled up next to a small group of poor Nepalese children sitting alongside the road, a fairly large American woman pushed a $10 bill through the window and shoved it in front of one of the children's faces. I was uphauled. They didn’t even know what to do with it. They looked at the $10 in the same way the African children looked at the sudden arrival of the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy.

The most important message for me from his talk was perhaps what I'll refer to as Bhutan’s Prime Directive, which is to be happy. Bhutan’s King has a development policy called Gross National Happiness. One of the jobs of Bhutan’s army is actually to make scotch. (not that I'm suggesting this be a new direction for the U.S. military :-)

But Gross National Happiness? What a concept!!! This is the kind of enlightenment coming from a post medieval age country, and yet in the advanced sprawling U.S. of A, things like 802.11, the iPod and Tivo bring us happiness.

In the West, happiness has usually been considered a utopian issue. Bhutan emphasizes the individual's quest for happiness and inner and outer freedom as the most precious endeavor. Their ideal of governance and polity center on this endeavor. And now they are asking how the dramatic changes propelling us into the 21st century will affect prospects for happiness and how information technology will affect people's happiness.