Street Fights in Shangri-la

Written by noajones on March 23, 2012. Published in The new city on Asia, Bhutan.

As part of our coverage on “The New City” we asked our bloggers for some pictures from their cities. Are there any places in their cities that are prime examples for sustainable urban living? But it could also be a negative example in order to show how a city should not look like.

I was heading to the post office, walking with my eyes to the steep staircase, not realizing that the boy in front of me had a knife he was about to wield on another boy in the parking lot. The reflection caught my eye and I quickly ducked into a hair salon and watched the fight unravel. Two gangs. Lots of knives. No real harm done in the end. But the garbage was strewn and the tension was thick. Youth have few options after failing to make the grade in the test-centric school system of Bhutan.

Moments after a gang fight in the market in Thimphu in Bhutan

noajones

I am a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction with twenty years of journalism experience. I am a columnist for Tricycle Magazine (it's about food mostly, with a sprinkling of Buddhism). Concurrent with my writing career, I have worked with numerous nonprofit organizations and major corporations as a communications director, development director and project coordinator. Since 2010 I have been Education Coordinator for the Lho Mon Society, developing curricular alternatives for the Kingdom of Bhutan in association with the Ministry of Education, the Royal Education Council and a number of NGOs. I am overseeing workshops for teacher development and integrated curriculum design while observing and participating in local classrooms. I received masters degree in creative writing, fiction, from Hunter College and am working on a novel.