Radio Shangri-La, by Lisa Napoli
Subtitle: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth
Some of you may recognize the name Lisa Napoli from public radio, for example on the show Marketplace. Some of you may also recognize the name Bhutan, a Himalayan nation even more remote than Nepal. If you recognize both, you are in a somewhat elite group.
This book is about Napoli's experience coming to learn about Bhutan by serving as an advisor to its first ever radio station, Kuzzoo FM. Her tale dances on the edge of being an "Eat, Pray, Love" kind of thing, which in my mind would be a failure. However, perhaps because she pulls back from the precipice and doesn't go there, managing to tell us more about Bhutan and not centering the entire book on herself and how she feels, in other words because she is not quite so self-absorbed, she manages to tell a very worthwhile and readable story. Of course, "Eat, Pray, Love" probably made orders of magnitude more money for its author. So, there's probably a (depressing and cynical) lesson there.
Ignoring it, I press on to discuss this book. Its worth is much the same as the purpose of good travel to other lands, which is to learn more about your own culture by seeing some counterexamples. Bhutan is, however, perhaps about as much of a counter example to Los Angeles (Napoli's current home) as one can imagine. For one thing, L.A. is much bigger; all of Bhutan is about the population of Austin, not counting Austin's suburbs. Secondly, Bhutan is as media-starved as L.A. is media-saturated, although (sadly?) this media isolation is ending (they now have TV and radio). Third, while L.A. and America generally are trying to figure out what the downsides of modern high-tech hyper-capitalist and ultra-connected living are, and how to cope with them, Bhutan is mostly trying to figure out how to get to all of those things in the first place.
Or at least, the young Bhutanese who Napoli encounters in Radio Kuzzoo are. Not too surprisingly, they want more rock and roll, more life in the big city, more excitement. While the nation is still overwhelmingly Buddhist, the young folks Napoli talks to mostly abjure meditation, declaring it "too boring". It is telling that Radio Kuzzoo is an English-language radio station, and a radio station using the local language doesn't get started for a few years after it. The impression one has is that one may be getting a last glimpse of Bhutan just before it disappears, becoming another (albeit remote) outpost of Globablland, except with higher mountains.
Of course, this isn't a foregone conclusion; it may be that Bhutan will find some way to integrate with the rest of the world without being absorbed and homogenized by it. The fact that this question is raised, though, is an example of the sort of un-selfcentered and thought-provoking writing that Napoli brings to Bhutan that other "middle-aged woman goes to a strange country" books often don't.
Not that there isn't plenty of the other as well. Napoli was clearly going through a midlife crisis of sorts when she went to Bhutan, and perhaps in part because of it she thought that picking up and transporting herself to somewhere far away was a good idea. She is reasonably self-critical, without being whiny, and if you're ok with an author talking about themselves it won't be a problem. If you're more interested in individuals than societies, you may wish that she spent more time on herself than on Bhutan. For me, she dances right up to the edge of self-absorption without going over it, so I am ok with it, if for no other reason than because the more you know about the writer's point of view, the better you can correct for it when reading what she has to say about Bhutan.
Interesting bit of trivia: for reasons which aren't entirely clear today, the University of Texas at El Paso has architecture which is almost entirely based on that of Bhutan, even though when it was begun virtually no one involved had ever been there. Now, there is a steady stream of young Bhutanese headed there for a western Education in not-quite-so-foreign surroundings.
Another interesting bit of trivia: Bhutan buildings are often decorated with paintings of giant phalluses. Bhutan has several golf courses. Bhutan's population didn't really want democracy, but adopted democracy when the king ordered them to.
And, the thing Bhutan is best known to the outside world for: Bhutan tracks their country's "Gross National Happiness", a statistic meant to be balanced alongside "Gross Domestic Product", when evaluating any given policy's impact on the nation. For example, increasing tourism will almost unquestionably raise GDP, but will it raise or lower GNH? A tough question to answer, but at least Bhutan is asking it. As is Napoli's book; the irony of a woman fleeing the impact of modern media on society by going to Bhutan, and then helping them set up a radio station there, was not lost on the author.
This book was not a great book at answering questions, but it does effectively use the mirror of "the Other" to offer us an opportunity to reflect on our own society. A quite productive use of a mid-life crisis.
Some of you may recognize the name Lisa Napoli from public radio, for example on the show Marketplace. Some of you may also recognize the name Bhutan, a Himalayan nation even more remote than Nepal. If you recognize both, you are in a somewhat elite group.
This book is about Napoli's experience coming to learn about Bhutan by serving as an advisor to its first ever radio station, Kuzzoo FM. Her tale dances on the edge of being an "Eat, Pray, Love" kind of thing, which in my mind would be a failure. However, perhaps because she pulls back from the precipice and doesn't go there, managing to tell us more about Bhutan and not centering the entire book on herself and how she feels, in other words because she is not quite so self-absorbed, she manages to tell a very worthwhile and readable story. Of course, "Eat, Pray, Love" probably made orders of magnitude more money for its author. So, there's probably a (depressing and cynical) lesson there.
Ignoring it, I press on to discuss this book. Its worth is much the same as the purpose of good travel to other lands, which is to learn more about your own culture by seeing some counterexamples. Bhutan is, however, perhaps about as much of a counter example to Los Angeles (Napoli's current home) as one can imagine. For one thing, L.A. is much bigger; all of Bhutan is about the population of Austin, not counting Austin's suburbs. Secondly, Bhutan is as media-starved as L.A. is media-saturated, although (sadly?) this media isolation is ending (they now have TV and radio). Third, while L.A. and America generally are trying to figure out what the downsides of modern high-tech hyper-capitalist and ultra-connected living are, and how to cope with them, Bhutan is mostly trying to figure out how to get to all of those things in the first place.
Or at least, the young Bhutanese who Napoli encounters in Radio Kuzzoo are. Not too surprisingly, they want more rock and roll, more life in the big city, more excitement. While the nation is still overwhelmingly Buddhist, the young folks Napoli talks to mostly abjure meditation, declaring it "too boring". It is telling that Radio Kuzzoo is an English-language radio station, and a radio station using the local language doesn't get started for a few years after it. The impression one has is that one may be getting a last glimpse of Bhutan just before it disappears, becoming another (albeit remote) outpost of Globablland, except with higher mountains.
Of course, this isn't a foregone conclusion; it may be that Bhutan will find some way to integrate with the rest of the world without being absorbed and homogenized by it. The fact that this question is raised, though, is an example of the sort of un-selfcentered and thought-provoking writing that Napoli brings to Bhutan that other "middle-aged woman goes to a strange country" books often don't.
Not that there isn't plenty of the other as well. Napoli was clearly going through a midlife crisis of sorts when she went to Bhutan, and perhaps in part because of it she thought that picking up and transporting herself to somewhere far away was a good idea. She is reasonably self-critical, without being whiny, and if you're ok with an author talking about themselves it won't be a problem. If you're more interested in individuals than societies, you may wish that she spent more time on herself than on Bhutan. For me, she dances right up to the edge of self-absorption without going over it, so I am ok with it, if for no other reason than because the more you know about the writer's point of view, the better you can correct for it when reading what she has to say about Bhutan.
Interesting bit of trivia: for reasons which aren't entirely clear today, the University of Texas at El Paso has architecture which is almost entirely based on that of Bhutan, even though when it was begun virtually no one involved had ever been there. Now, there is a steady stream of young Bhutanese headed there for a western Education in not-quite-so-foreign surroundings.
Another interesting bit of trivia: Bhutan buildings are often decorated with paintings of giant phalluses. Bhutan has several golf courses. Bhutan's population didn't really want democracy, but adopted democracy when the king ordered them to.
And, the thing Bhutan is best known to the outside world for: Bhutan tracks their country's "Gross National Happiness", a statistic meant to be balanced alongside "Gross Domestic Product", when evaluating any given policy's impact on the nation. For example, increasing tourism will almost unquestionably raise GDP, but will it raise or lower GNH? A tough question to answer, but at least Bhutan is asking it. As is Napoli's book; the irony of a woman fleeing the impact of modern media on society by going to Bhutan, and then helping them set up a radio station there, was not lost on the author.
This book was not a great book at answering questions, but it does effectively use the mirror of "the Other" to offer us an opportunity to reflect on our own society. A quite productive use of a mid-life crisis.