I’ve been having a small debate on kuzuzangpo.com because at least one member feels that whites should stay in their own country. He seems to ignore the fact that there are far more Bhutanese in Australia than Australians in Bhutan (especially if you look at per capita numbers), but other reasons for a dislike of foreigners include the fact that we come to their country, complain about conditions and laugh at the people. I’m guilty of these things too, as much as I try not to be. I complain about the unreliable water and I laugh at them playing solitaire rather than working. Even if I understand why it’s like this, the Bhutanese don’t know that. They can easily take it personally. Perhaps it’s worse because I understand.
On the other side, I hate having people shout ‘chilip’ at me as I walk down the street. For them, it may just mean foreigner, but its done in the same way as we’d say ‘wog’ in Australia. Here, they may do it with a smile, but that doesn’t change much. I’ve been here for almost two years. I don’t want to be recognised as an outsider any more. The problem is that it’s the easiest way to refer to us. ‘I saw a chilip wearing a gho today.’ ‘You know the chilip at my office..’ So adults use the term and kids hear it. It’s generally the kids that throw it in our faces, not realising that they’re acting in a racist way.
If we can managed to get these terms out of our languages, kids would have less tools to use to hurt each other. Without a word for white person (or pick your colour for other countries) they may even stop thinking there’s a difference. It will be a lot harder to stop talking about differences in culture and conditions, but perhaps we can talk about them with respect so that diversity is always seen as a good thing.