rfmcdonald | [LINK] "Slowly, Internet and Communication Let the World In" (Reply)

Inter Press Service's Yasmin Lee Arpon writes about the impact of social networking on the Himalayan monarchy/theocracy of Bhutan. It turns out that Facebook, particularly, is creating new spaces for discourse. How these spaces will be used is another question.

An introduction in Bhutan these days is usually accompanied by "I'm on Facebook!" Anjali Bista, 11, is no exception.

The outgoing Bista has made 71 friends on the social networking site. While that number pales in comparison with the hundreds or even thousands that other Facebook users have, consider this: she has not met more than half of them in person.

But one or two have visited her with gifts when they came to this Himalayan country, located between China and India, which had been isolated for centuries and today tries to manage its interactions with the outside world, including through limits on the entry of foreign tourists.

But the trickle of visitors coming into the ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’ also reflects how better communication, including Internet, is slowly opening Bhutan up to the world.

There are more than 32,000 users of the social networking site in Bhutan, according to estimates by Candytech, which specialises in marketing and developing applications for Facebook. That number is only almost 5 percent of Bhutan’s nearly 700,000 people, but 65 percent of its online population of 50,000.

The mostly mountainous terrain of landlocked Bhutan has made it difficult for the government to install telecommunication systems in rural areas. Most people live in the central highlands, which can only be accessed through rough roads or narrow trekking paths.

But the government and private sector are slowly building networks even in the most remote places, bridging the distance between the kingdom and the world outside.

Kezang, 23, who in October started a government course on business entrepreneurship skills development, plans to open a Facebook account soon. "Everyone's on Facebook," she smiles.

If the government approves her business proposal at the end of the one-month course, she plans to open her own restaurant – and may use Facebook to promote it.