Happiest nations in the world

Peter Wu

29 December 2012

I know Mr. Bob Choi doesn’t like rankings of this nature. I am the complete opposite because I was born with an un-questioning mind so I tend to accept findings like these as they are, regardless of how they arrive at those rankings.

Well an international survey has revealed seven out of the top 10 happiest countries are among the poorest in middle and South Americas.

‘Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.’

While this in itself is revealing, what is far more interesting is the ranking of Singapore as the unhappiest country in the world, By comparison, Singapore is ‘a palm-studded, tropical land with a thriving economy and an impressive per-capita GDP comparable to that of any leading Western European nation.

But they're miserable, according to many residents — only 46 percent reported positive feelings. "We work like dogs and get paid peanuts," Richard Low, a 33-year-old businessman in Singapore, told the Associated Press. "There's hardly any time for holidays or just to relax in general because you're always thinking ahead: when the next deadline or meeting is. There is hardly a fair sense of work-life balance here."

Kids are being put through an pressure-cooker-like education system. If studying does not wring the last ounce of energy out of them, having additional tuition, playing a violin, or piano, or other musical instrument will. The Association of Electronic Goods Manufacturers in Japan reported that the sales of electronic games like the X-Box, Play Station, Nintendo in Singapore are among the lowest in the world. Not because the Singaporeans are anti-Japanese but because of active boycotts by Singaporean parents, for the sake of their children’s education.

What does this study tell me? It tells me that money does not equate to happiness. Money cannot buy longer-term happiness. In fact having (too much) money brings forth all sorts of problem, like the bickering of the Stanley Ho clan. So money and happiness are inversely correlated.

I am happy to report that I am very very happy so it goes without saying that I am very very broke.

Attached information

HAPPIEST

Panama, 85 percent

Paraguay, 85 percent

El Salvador, 84 percent

Venezuela, 84 percent

Trinidad and Tobago, 83 percent

Thailand, 83 percent

Guatemala, 82 percent

Philippines, 82, percent

Ecuador, 81 percent

Costa Rica, 81 percent

SADDEST

Singapore, 46 percent

Armenia, 49 percent

Iraq, 50 percent

Georgia, 52 percent

Yemen, 52 percent

Serbia, 52 percent

Belarus, 53 percent

Lithuania, 54 percent

Madagascar, 54 percent