King Kesar invited to give speech on GNH

If this went as planned, we will hear for the first time Bhutanese monarch giving speech on Gross National Happiness, in Phillipines next year.

Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions, a network of pawnshops in that country, has invited King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk to deliver speech on GNH at a function where award of ‘Happiest Pinoy’ would be given.

Though GNH is said to have coined by fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, he has never given any speech on GNH.

This is the third time Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions is giving away Happiest Pinoy award.

Cebuana Lhuillier says it has launched the nationwide campaign to look for the Happiest Pinoy “to rekindle the values of optimism, resilience and hope” among Filipinos amid the crises facing them.

Bhutan has been described by various organisations as one of the happiest nations in the world, presumably because it has enforced the promotion of its citizens’ well-being as a national policy, Batangan said in a news briefing.

“We invited the king of Bhutan because he is the embodiment of happiness,” he said. “The country is not only focused on economic development in general but also on the personal happiness of its citizens.”

Batangan said his group visited the Royal University of Bhutan in September and asked its former vice chancellor, Dasho Pema Thinley, to extend their invitation to the king.

King Jigme Khesar is the university’s chancellor.

Batangan said the Bhutan government had been sending its students to the Philippines to study agriculture.