Según cuenta este artículo, el pequeño reino de Bután ha sido la última nación de la Tierra en permitir la televisión. Poco después, ha tenido que enfrentarse a las primeras olas de crímenes del país y a cambios sociales devastadores. ¿Casualidad?
The marijuana that flourishes like a weed in every Bhutanese hedgerow was only ever used to feed pigs before the advent of TV, but police have arrested hundreds for smoking it in recent years. Six employees of the Bank of Bhutan have been sentenced for siphoning off 2.4m ngultrums (£40,000). Six weeks before we arrived, 18 people were jailed after a gang of drunken boys broke into houses to steal foreign currency and a 21-inch television set. During the holy Bishwa Karma Puja celebrations, a man was stabbed in the stomach in a fight over alcohol. A middle-class Thimphu boy is serving a sentence after putting on a bandanna and shooting up the ceiling of a local bar with his dad’s new gun. Police can barely control the fights at the new hip-hop night on Saturdays.
While the government delays, an independent group of Bhutanese academics has carried out its own impact study and found that cable television has caused «dramatic changes» to society, being responsible for increasing crime, corruption, an uncontrolled desire for western products, and changing attitudes to love and relationships. Dorji Penjore, one of the researchers involved in the study, says: «Even my children are changing. They are fighting in the playground, imitating techniques they see on World Wrestling Federation. Some have already been injured, as they do not understand that what they see is not real. When I was growing up, WWF meant World Wide Fund for Nature.»
El artículo termina comentando:
Everyone is as yet too polite to say it, but, like all of us, the Dragon King underestimated the power of TV, perceiving it as a benign and controllable force, allowing it free rein, believing that his kingdom’s culture was strong enough to resist its messages. But television is a portal, and in Bhutan it is systematically replacing one culture with another, skewing the notion of Gross National Happiness, persuading a nation of novice Buddhist consumers to become preoccupied with themselves, rather than searching for their self.
¿Hemos infravalorado el impacto de la televisión? ¿Estamos tan acostumbrada a ella en occidente que no notamos cómo ha alterado nuestras vidas? ¿Exageran los periodistas?
(vía the null device)