Media Coverage


Bhutanese blog goes viral in Singapore

Kuensel Date: 6th Nov 2011
  


A Bhutanese teacher’s reaction to a Singaporean minister’s remarks grabs the city-state’s eyeballs
Social MediaIn a demonstration of the reach of social media, a Bhutanese school teacher’s blog post, responding to a Singaporean minister’s comments on Bhutan, has gone ‘viral’ in Singapore, which simply means it has gained sudden and immense popularity, and is being circulated rapidly among the tiny island state’s inhabitants.
The blog post, which responds to a Singaporean minister’s comments that, among others, “Bhutan is not the Shangri-la on earth”, and that, during a visit, he had seen mostly “unhappy people toiling the fields”, has also sparked a number of “heated” online discussions there on the quality of life and happiness of the city state’s own citizens.
Passang Tshering, a teacher at Bajothang higher secondary school in Wangdue, responded to the minister’s comments on his blog, Passu Diary – Journal of an Ordinary Bhutanese, where he usually only writes about his family, school, students and sometimes, social issues.
“I didn’t feel good about Mr Khaw’s insensitive statement on our country; his justifications for the claims were nothing but his point of view, so I just sat down and wrote a letter, telling him about happiness he missed when he visited Bhutan,” said the 28-year-old school teacher, in an email interview.
Passang Tshering posted the response on October 21 and, on Thursday, the posting suddenly generated more than 65,000 hits or views. “Everything was normal until yesterday, when it suddenly started to go crazy,” said Passang. “When the hits shot over 45,000 I began to worry. What have I done?” He pointed out that his blog usually had a daily traffic of only about 300 visitors.
Unprecedented for a Bhutanese personal blog, the hit counter on the website, which, as of last night, had more than 150,000 views, and was generating at least one view every second, with no sign of slowing down.
Passang’s response, where he compares the different lifestyles in Bhutan and Singapore, and what the Singaporean minister “overlooked” during his visit has also generated over a hundred comments, the majority from Singaporeans, on his blog. Most of the comments are either compliments of Passang’s response or apologies for the minister’s comments, which has already caused the schoolteacher to write a new post titled, “Singaporeans Believe in Bhutan.”
He writes on his latest post, “I only wanted Mr. Khaw to know that we are happy and far beyond my intention it has gone viral”. Passang was not able to explain why his blog post had suddenly become so popular in Singapore. “As a blogger, I feel so great, but my intention was not to trigger unrest and disturb (peace) of mind of anybody, not even Mr. Wan’s,” he said on the effect of his blog post in Singapore.
Asked about his feelings on his overnight newfound status, Passang said that he has learned how powerful social media can be. “Even a lone voice could make a difference.” But he also added, “Seriously, we should be mindful about what we write on social media, when something unprecedented like this happens, we’re answerable. Thank god I was just defending my country and not attacking theirs!”
Khaw Boon Wan, who is the minister of National Development, had made the comments during a speech in parliament.  He discussed Bhutan at length.  Some Singaporeans, on both Passang’s blog and on Singaporean online forums, have pointed out that the comments he made have been taken out of context.  Despite this, many Singaporeans have expressed their displeasure at such comments being passed.
“Personally I don’t expect Mr Wan to respond to me, I am just an ordinary blogger, but if he finds it needful he may think a way around,” said Passang Tshering on whether he is satisfied with the current outcome of his blog post.
By Gyalsten K Dorji


Following are the Forums, Blogs, and website in which PaSsu Diary was mentioned in Singapore:



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