I would have our presidential nominees in a quiz show format, also with some limited time-based challenges. A pentathlon of general knowledge, knowledge of history, simple mathematical skills, puzzle-solving, and skills assessment.
• How much is a carton of eggs in your constituency?
• Under what amendment to the Bill of Rights is an American guaranteed a jury trial?
• If each of the 12 U.S. aircraft carriers have a compliment of 15,000 men, and men retire at an annual rate of 10%, about how many new enlistments are needed per year?
The questions would be answered in a ”Jeopardy!” style format, some played against each other for fastest response and others written on to the screen and shown at the same time.
And reading graphs with exponential scales.
Bhutan holds general election as economic crisis hits ‘national happiness’
The picturesque Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is set to hold a general election with serious economic challenges calling into question its longstanding policy of prioritising “Gross National Happiness” over growth.
Both parties contesting Tuesday’s vote are committed to a constitutionally enshrined philosophy of a government that measures its success by the “happiness and well-being of the people”.
Some voters are expected to trek for days to cast their ballots in the landlocked and sparsely populated country, similar in size to Switzerland.
Foremost in the minds of many are the struggles facing the kingdom’s younger generation, with chronic unemployment and a brain drain of migration abroad.
“We don’t need more new roads or bridges,” farmer Kinley Wangchuk, 46, told AFP news agency. “What we really need is more jobs for young people.”
Bhutan’s youth unemployment rate stands at 29 percent, according to the World Bank, while economic growth has sputtered along at an average of 1.7 percent over the past five years.
Young citizens have left in record numbers searching for better financial and educational opportunities abroad since the last elections, with Australia as the top destination.
Bhutan held elections for the first time in 2008 after political reforms established a
bicameral parliament soon after the start of the reign of the present king, who remains hugely popular.
Campaigns in the Buddhist-majority nation have always been subdued affairs, with strict rules mandating that election materials can only be posted on public notice boards.
A primary contest in November narrowed the race down to two parties, with both the previous government’s lawmakers and their former opposition knocked out.
The party of former Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, a doctor known for conducting surgeries on weekends as a “de-stressor” from the pressures of office, polled just 13 percent.