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the importance of being happy
text . Pauline Chan .
In 1972, Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided that Bhutan's progress should be measured by "Gross National Happiness" (GNH) instead of Gross Domestic Product. The GNH is used to measure its people's sense of being well-governed, their relationship with the environment, satisfaction with the pace of economic development, and a sense of cultural and national belonging.
Economic growth is considered inadequate in providing personal fulfilment and there is a search to look beyond material satisfaction. The GNH looks into the quality of life, amount of leisure time one has, what is happening in their community and how integrated one is with their culture.
This idea is gradually catching the imaginations of political leaders and economist around the world. It has been taken up by the United Nations Development Programme and refined to produce the Human Development Index, which seeks to incorporate life expectancy, education and standards of living as indicators of a country's development.
In 1972, Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided that Bhutan's progress should be measured by "Gross National Happiness" (GNH) instead of Gross Domestic Product. The GNH is used to measure its people's sense of being well-governed, their relationship with the environment, satisfaction with the pace of economic development, and a sense of cultural and national belonging.
Economic growth is considered inadequate in providing personal fulfilment and there is a search to look beyond material satisfaction. The GNH looks into the quality of life, amount of leisure time one has, what is happening in their community and how integrated one is with their culture.
This idea is gradually catching the imaginations of political leaders and economist around the world. It has been taken up by the United Nations Development Programme and refined to produce the Human Development Index, which seeks to incorporate life expectancy, education and standards of living as indicators of a country's development.
Leaders are admitting that measuring a country's progress using solely GDP is incomplete and are introducing 'happiness' as an additional guideline for good governance. Last November, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans for a 'happiness index' and said the Office for National Statistics would invite people to grade their own contentment from April this year.
The French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, commissioned a panel of economists who proposed the replacement of GDP with a Net National Product which would take into account the contentment of the people, the quality of public services and free services available within communities.
China has felt the simmering discontent of their people caused by the social woes, widening inequality gap, corruption and environmental degradation brought on by their rapid economic development in the past three decades. Chinese officials have been ordered to go out and make people happy. An official's performance and political achievements will be evaluated by whether the public are happy or not, and not by how many high-rise buildings he had been involved in. Chinese academics are also researching the development of a Chinese National Happiness Index to measure factors like environment and sense of social contentment in a scheme not unlike the British Prime Minister's proposal.
Get an idea of the importance of being happy at the Telegraph.
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