Gross National Happiness - the Bhutan Story – where happiness is Law
Money can't buy happiness; only in Bhutan that observation is the basis of government policy. Bhutan, an insular Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between India and Tibet, measures its progress not in GDP - gross domestic product, a measure of economic health and development used by most nations—but in GNH, or Gross National Happiness.
This is not a tally of the number of cable movies without advertising interruptions, chocolate desserts, days off work, hugs from little children or free skybox seats for the playoffs. Rather, it's a way of looking at development in more than economic terms, balancing material gains with immaterial ones.
According to Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who invented the concept for his country in 1972, Gross National Happiness is built on four pillars:
1. fair and sustainable economic and social development,
2. protection and promotion of cultural values,
3. environmental conservation and
4. Good government.
In practice, that means any economic development project in Bhutan is considered progress only if it doesn't dramatically widen the income gap between rich and poor, pollute the country's rivers, sicken its people or line a government official's pocket.
"Gross National Happiness is not about happiness," The country, with about 635,000 people, has the highest per capita income in mainland South Asia, with most of its money derived from sales of clean hydroelectric power to neighbouring India and from luring high-end exclusivity-seeking tourists, who must spend at least USD 200 a day while visiting the country.
Bhutan's rushing glacier-melt rivers are surprisingly clean and its pine, oak and hemlock forests largely intact. Ancient traditional sports such as archery are still a passion, and more than 90 percent of Bhutanese have access to free health care and education. Until four years ago, there was no personal income tax.
The country, which allowed in television and the Internet in 1999, has issued other restrictions for the sake of culture, including banning the World Wrestling Federation channel after Bhutan's impressionable youth showed too much enthusiasm for the feigned violence.
Before being exposed to Hollywood fare, "the Bhutanese farmer was happy and thought he had everything he needed: a house, a plot of land, all the food he could produce, festivals in the winter,". Now, "suddenly he has television and sees all the things he doesn't have. He wants more and feels he has less."
Faced with "the onslaught of global media," the country must work on emphasizing "the refined human values of compassion, generosity, humility and selflessness as necessary conditions for furthering human development," Prime Minister Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji emphasized in a speech late last year.
Still, most Bhutanese say they feel their country is on the right track—more than can be said for many other places in the world—even if the king did just abolish absolute royal rule and bring in an elected parliament and prime minister, over the objections of the largely royalist population.
In Bhutan, "Gross National Happiness is not something new. It's a reminder of what we have and what we should preserve."
(Source : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-letter_happiness-bhutanmar27,1,2168963.story)