The name is enough to get those "here we go again" sounds come from your inner second personality that whispers in your ear all the time (you don't have one of them?...try it...it's fun), but "The Happy Planet Index 2009" has just been published by a bunch of people that wear hemp sandals in London called The New Economics Foundation.
So this Happy Planet Index takes things like life expectancy, ecological footprint (it was in that Al Gore movie...remember?) and other things like being poor is fashionable...probably. And as it turns out, Latin America seriously but seriously whups the world's tush, with nine of the top ten places (143 countries surveyed) taken by the region...damn, we rule.
So this Happy Planet Index takes things like life expectancy, ecological footprint (it was in that Al Gore movie...remember?) and other things like being poor is fashionable...probably. And as it turns out, Latin America seriously but seriously whups the world's tush, with nine of the top ten places (143 countries surveyed) taken by the region...damn, we rule.
(click to enlarge)Here above are the LatAm countries in their entirety as placed by the these so-called hippy people with the lower the score the better (e.g. Uruguay sucks). As well as tippy top top placed Costa Rica, Central America and the Caribbean scores well. In continental South America, Colombia and Brazil make the top ten, which must be the only time Colombia wins in a world poll that doesn't involve death, cocaine or both.
And if you're wondering, The UK 74th place, Canada 89th place, The USA 114th place. So you all suck. So there. In fact the best placed "western nations" (reminds me of '3:10 to Yuma' that we watched last night....pretty good movie, BTW) is The Netherlands, squeaking in at position 43. Find all the downloads here (the XLS file is the most fun).
So remember folks, money doesn't buy you happiness but it does buy you the computer equipment to create stupid polls while sitting in an office in the most expensive real estate area in the whole world, publish them and then read them online. I'm now likely to receive a stuffy mail from the authors of the report because one thing treehuggers always seem to lack is a sense of humour. Lentilburgers served.
UPDATE (from reader 'PP')
Question: How do you confuse an ecologist?
Answer: Ask where the nickel in his Prius batteries came from.
And if you're wondering, The UK 74th place, Canada 89th place, The USA 114th place. So you all suck. So there. In fact the best placed "western nations" (reminds me of '3:10 to Yuma' that we watched last night....pretty good movie, BTW) is The Netherlands, squeaking in at position 43. Find all the downloads here (the XLS file is the most fun).
So remember folks, money doesn't buy you happiness but it does buy you the computer equipment to create stupid polls while sitting in an office in the most expensive real estate area in the whole world, publish them and then read them online. I'm now likely to receive a stuffy mail from the authors of the report because one thing treehuggers always seem to lack is a sense of humour. Lentilburgers served.
UPDATE (from reader 'PP')
Question: How do you confuse an ecologist?
Answer: Ask where the nickel in his Prius batteries came from.
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7 comments:
Colombia scores consistently in the top 10 globally on every happiness survey done. Go ahead and search Google over the past decades worth of "happiness" surveys. Here's another survey done last year by the UN. Colombians are a happy people. Nobody is quite sure why, but I think the conflict has given them a different perspective on what to be grateful for in life.
I always doubt how they do this surveys...Happiness is a cultural thing so the questions and answers will be interpret differently in each country.
Look their first 4 countries, have been they in CR, Jamaica, Guatemala, Colombia? I don't think those people are happy not the majority at least.
Maybe they were up in smoke while conducting the survey...
Or maybe they conducted the survey in Barranquilla during carnival, in Cartagena during the 11 de noviembre festivities, in Cali during the feria de Cali and in Medellin during la feria de las flores.
There is no shortage of reinados, carnivals and festivals of all kinds (and this applies to all Lat.Am and the Carribean) where they can get as many drunk respondents that will answer that they live the happiest lives in the happiest place on earth.
The thing is, it's called the Happy PLANET Index, not the happy people index. To quote from their own website:
"The Index doesn’t reveal the ‘happiest’ country in the world. It shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens."
Therefore, obviously all the Western countries cannot score highly because they all use far more their fair share of resources. I think perhaps it should have a totally different name because it always generates debate around actual happy people.
As far as actual happiness is concerned, I think there is sometimes a tendency to overdo the 'poor but happy' stereotype.
Colombians might be happy but don't insult their football ability...
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99934§ionid=351020703
This "index" is actually biased in that it heavily favours poor countries as they have very low ecological footprints, to be taken with the necessary grain of salt...
If they are all so "happy," why are they all so eager to move the the USA? Perhaps their own homes are a fool's paradise?
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where you can be happy, but just hurry up with it, ok?
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