In the latest Happy Planet Index Report (HPI), Singapore has jumped to 49th position from a lowly 131st in 2006.
And how happy are our neighbours? Malaysia moved to 33rd from 44th, Thailand dropped to 41st from 32nd, Indonesia climbed to 16th from 23rd, and Hong Kong inched to 84th from 88th.
From the above comparison, our great leap of 82 positions is nothing short of a phenomenon.
Here is another strange one; Burma (aka Myanmar) moved from 77th to 39th position in the latest happiness index. The Burmese are happier than us!
All other Asean countries are ranked higher than us with the exception of Cambodia (80th). Vietnam is way up there at 5th position. Brunei is not covered in the survey but I guess we can safely assume Bruneians must be happy with all that oil-revenue funded subsidies.
Our ministers must be happy with the vast improvement in our HPI as well. By the way, our ministers are the happiest public servants in the world. The huge leap in our happiness index will certainly make them delirious by now. Do you smell election around the corner?
The Burmese generals are also the happiest soldiers in the world. One of them even got an orchid named after him. I wonder if that has something to do with the impressive jump in the country's HPI.
Anyway, happiness is a state of mind. Most of the countries above Singapore in the happiness index have a lower per capita income than us. What more proof does one need that money just can't buy you talent to create happiness.
Another 'state-of-mind' factor is most of these happy people know exactly where they live when they wake up every morning. Singaporeans, on the other hand, have to ponder if their constituencies are going to be around before and after each election. Now, that cannot be a happy thing, can it?
So are Singaporeans really happier now than three years ago? Are Burmese happier as well? Going by the results of the HPI, I no longer understand how happiness is measured! But one thing for sure, there will be many happy generals and politicians who will use this HPI results to justify their despotic existence.
By the way, the HPI was started in 2006 by nef, an 'independent think-and-do' tank. The nef website states that HPI provides a compass to measure 'what truly matters to us – our well-being in terms of long, happy and meaningful lives – and what matters to the planet – our rate of resource consumption.'
And how happy are our neighbours? Malaysia moved to 33rd from 44th, Thailand dropped to 41st from 32nd, Indonesia climbed to 16th from 23rd, and Hong Kong inched to 84th from 88th.
From the above comparison, our great leap of 82 positions is nothing short of a phenomenon.
Here is another strange one; Burma (aka Myanmar) moved from 77th to 39th position in the latest happiness index. The Burmese are happier than us!
All other Asean countries are ranked higher than us with the exception of Cambodia (80th). Vietnam is way up there at 5th position. Brunei is not covered in the survey but I guess we can safely assume Bruneians must be happy with all that oil-revenue funded subsidies.
Our ministers must be happy with the vast improvement in our HPI as well. By the way, our ministers are the happiest public servants in the world. The huge leap in our happiness index will certainly make them delirious by now. Do you smell election around the corner?
The Burmese generals are also the happiest soldiers in the world. One of them even got an orchid named after him. I wonder if that has something to do with the impressive jump in the country's HPI.
Anyway, happiness is a state of mind. Most of the countries above Singapore in the happiness index have a lower per capita income than us. What more proof does one need that money just can't buy you talent to create happiness.
Another 'state-of-mind' factor is most of these happy people know exactly where they live when they wake up every morning. Singaporeans, on the other hand, have to ponder if their constituencies are going to be around before and after each election. Now, that cannot be a happy thing, can it?
So are Singaporeans really happier now than three years ago? Are Burmese happier as well? Going by the results of the HPI, I no longer understand how happiness is measured! But one thing for sure, there will be many happy generals and politicians who will use this HPI results to justify their despotic existence.
By the way, the HPI was started in 2006 by nef, an 'independent think-and-do' tank. The nef website states that HPI provides a compass to measure 'what truly matters to us – our well-being in terms of long, happy and meaningful lives – and what matters to the planet – our rate of resource consumption.'
2 comments:
Thank you for the insightful blogpost. The Singapore Democrats have featured your post in our blogs of the week section – http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/blogs-of-the-week
More about our “Blogs of the week” section – http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/2212-blogs-of-the-week
What is this? SDP going to a Workers' Party member's blog to advertise their blog??
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