Where the Heck is Bhutan?

Posted on 07/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

Not long ago I watched an Academy Award nominated movie titled Lunana, A Yak In the Classroom. It is a cute story about a young man from Bhutan who complained about his teaching job to the state supervisor in charge of teaching assignments. What was funny about this story was that the kid wanted to quit his job, and the Super held his feet to the fire by reminding him he had one year left on his contract. She then proceeded to change his assignment to Lunana the most remote school in the country. To give an example of how remote it is he took a train to the end of the line, then hiked uphill for eight days. (Hint: Never complain about your job to the person who can change it.)

The movie used local people to act, so in effect this was a reality film except it was acted to a script. One question kept rolling through my mind, “where the heck is Bhutan?” The scenery surrounding the village of Lunana is amazing, mountains, valleys, and streams. The people were friendly and made the story believable.

The teacher finally arrives, and is shown the school. It is a one room stone building with open windows and a door. He is then taken to his room where he will live. He falls asleep. At 8:30 the following morning he is awakened by a little girl who announces that school starts at 8:30 every morning and ends at 3:00 pm. He groggily dresses and finds his way to the kids who are all sitting on the floor in the classroom waiting for teacher.

After several weeks teacher is making friends and exhibiting some depression about his plight. The young woman he unloads on tells him he needs a Yak. The next day she walks into his class with a Yak. It is a favorite from her herd (a Yak is something like a cow). The Yak lives in the classroom for the remainder of the story. The story has a sad but happy ending.

I had to do a geographical search to learn where Bhutan is located. It is between China and India near Tibet. The population of Bhutan is 788,6015 and it’s Himalayan mountain peaks soar to 23,000 feet. The capital is Thimphu, population 114,551. Lunana has a population of 810.

And now you know!

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We Are A Country Of Wusses

Posted on 07/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

This morning I took Lovely to a doctor’s appointment. She had minor surgery about two months ago and today was her first follow up appointment with the surgeon. I was absolutely livid that we were driving twenty miles to see a doctor who should have seen her a week after her surgery. What sense does it make to look at a scar that is healed over? In my mind he should have been more interested in seeing that his cut was healing and not getting infected after the surgery. This was clearly a cover your ass appointment. He could honestly note in his chart that he followed up.

The doctor is young and cocky. My first wife Barbara worked with surgeons and always commented on how cock-sure they were of themselves and how demanding they were with underlings. This guy fit her description of a surgeon. Being upset, I angrily asked him why he took so long to see Lovely after he operated. His answer, “I had a kid.”

“You mean you gave birth to a child?” I replied.

“No, I took paternity leave and was off for six weeks.” “

“Congratulations,” I said.

That was the end of it. I wouldn’t accomplish anything by pushing the point further.

What I am going to say next will probably irritate every woman on the face of the earth. It is my opinion that today’s ladies have evolved into complete pussies. What ever happened to women who gave birth and went back to work the day, or next week or, the woman who gives birth and takes care of her newborn while also caring for their several other children, the house, the wash, the meals, the shopping, the dog? No, they have to have their husband home to help them out for that critical period after birth.

Actually, I don’t think women of today are any different than the women of yesteryear, but their husbands are clearly playing the system and take advantage of the laws that give them the six week vacation after the birth of a child. It doesn’t help when our Secretary of Transportation Mayor Pete Buttigieg disappeared for six weeks to assist his wife-husband to care for their newborn. I can see him needing six weeks off to learn how to care for a baby only because men aren’t programmed to do those kinds of things. Real women have natural instincts on the care of children.

During our child rearing years my wife never missed a beat. In fact, she made sure I didn’t miss a single hour of work on account of the newborn. I never had a middle of the night call to change a diaper or administer a bottle. Her thinking was that my job was too damned important to the security of the family. Yet, today’s ladies are gifted with all of the modernities of a large house filled with every available labor saving device conceived, and still they need help from their hubbies.

It won’t be long before uncle decides it is time to hand over the child to a government paid childcare center for raising. Wasn’t that the theme used in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 book “Brave New World” or Orwell’s “1984”?

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