Shiny Happy People! {IIPM B&E Article}
Everybody says I’m fine. Vanuatu too…
‘Ecological footprint’. Now those aren’t spoors that would unravel the mystery of Bigfoot. Neither do they guide enough to give chase and outpace rampaging hurricanes. Rather, these trace the world’s find of the happiest patch of land on this planet. According to the Happy Planet Index conceived by the New Economics Foundation in UK, the buck of bliss stops at Vanuatu…
Bet you are asking where on earth is that? If you stand thus befuddled, then this hitherto-obscure little one among the happy islands of Oceania proves to be a case in point towards the so-called-thinker’s idea of happiness forever playing hard-toget! Criterion well-met – life satisfaction (“Gee… I drove the damned slowpoke off the road today!”?), life expectancy (“three scores and ten”, quoth the Book?) and of course, the ‘footprint’ mapping environmental impact (stop to smell the roses… and pluck them for girl?) – probably, but the results have most certainly left the rest of the world a lot more unsettled and unhappier than what Bush and Blair have already brought them to. Considering US and UK’s 150th and 108th ranks respectively in the 178 nation list, gigantic GDPs are no covenant to contentment. But then again, with barely enough life on Vanuatu to keep the WWF humoured, there couldn’t have been much reason to not have a good GDP – Great Domestic Party – of their own! Basically, no point picking on those French steel sitting ducks. The Happy Planet Index proves with this Melanesian isle that “people can live long, fulfilled lives without using more than their share of the earth’s resources”. So while we have the BRIC Report’s Superpower-in-2050 prophecy to sit back, let’s just be occupied enough to keep the ‘resources’ of gelatin bombs off our minds. After all, Vanuatu is just about tourism and agriculture. Or you can simply continue with that compulsive peddling of sms forwards in keeping with the utilitarian theory of happiness – action of the greatest good for the greatest number and all that. I go back to being an existentialist, though…
For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...
‘Ecological footprint’. Now those aren’t spoors that would unravel the mystery of Bigfoot. Neither do they guide enough to give chase and outpace rampaging hurricanes. Rather, these trace the world’s find of the happiest patch of land on this planet. According to the Happy Planet Index conceived by the New Economics Foundation in UK, the buck of bliss stops at Vanuatu…
Bet you are asking where on earth is that? If you stand thus befuddled, then this hitherto-obscure little one among the happy islands of Oceania proves to be a case in point towards the so-called-thinker’s idea of happiness forever playing hard-toget! Criterion well-met – life satisfaction (“Gee… I drove the damned slowpoke off the road today!”?), life expectancy (“three scores and ten”, quoth the Book?) and of course, the ‘footprint’ mapping environmental impact (stop to smell the roses… and pluck them for girl?) – probably, but the results have most certainly left the rest of the world a lot more unsettled and unhappier than what Bush and Blair have already brought them to. Considering US and UK’s 150th and 108th ranks respectively in the 178 nation list, gigantic GDPs are no covenant to contentment. But then again, with barely enough life on Vanuatu to keep the WWF humoured, there couldn’t have been much reason to not have a good GDP – Great Domestic Party – of their own! Basically, no point picking on those French steel sitting ducks. The Happy Planet Index proves with this Melanesian isle that “people can live long, fulfilled lives without using more than their share of the earth’s resources”. So while we have the BRIC Report’s Superpower-in-2050 prophecy to sit back, let’s just be occupied enough to keep the ‘resources’ of gelatin bombs off our minds. After all, Vanuatu is just about tourism and agriculture. Or you can simply continue with that compulsive peddling of sms forwards in keeping with the utilitarian theory of happiness – action of the greatest good for the greatest number and all that. I go back to being an existentialist, though…
For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...
posted by IIPM Global Program at 3:44 AM
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