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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Happiness By Antonio C. Abaya Written July 31, 2006 For the Standard Today, August 01 issue Several years ago, a survey organization, whose name I cannot recall, did a survey on how different people in East Asia self-rated themselves on a graduating scale of Happiness. The results showed that Filipinos were the happiest people in East Asia, and the Japanese the unhappiest. And everyone else � the Koreans, the Chinese, the Taiwanese, the Singaporeans, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Thais � were somewhere in between. Before its demise, the authoritative Far Eastern Economic Review also did similar surveys, but limited its universes to corporate executives and managers, not to men and women on the streets. If memory serves, the results also showed Filipinos self-rating themselves the happiest, and the Japanese the unhappiest. Why so? I can no longer recall the exact questions asked by either survey, but I can hazard the guess that those questions have to do with the degree of personal freedom enjoyed by people in their daily lives. The Japanese, being the most urbanized and most industrialized people in this part of the world, are subject to the most demanding regulations, the most intrusive restrictions on their personal freedoms, all of which exert enormous pressure on their psyches to conform to certain modes of behavior, failure to do which results in social ostracism, bureaucratic penalties, even jail sentences. Japanese trains are unerringly punctual, but they are packed with sullen, unsmiling and silently grumbling individuals, despite the rituals of courtesy and social harmony that they have devised over the centuries to make life in their crowded cities tolerable. The Filipinos, on the other hand, are just on the cusp of urbanization and industrialization and have not yet acquired the habits of punctuality, neat and orderly allocation of space, and rigid norms of social behavior. Thus our trains are not only NOT punctual, they are routinely pelted with bags of human excrement as they run the gauntlet of toilet-less squatter colonies illegally occupying both sides of the railroad tracks, against whom the trains exact revenge of sorts by sometimes dragging hapless or drunken squatters under their steel bogies, there to die horrible deaths. If the surveys are to be believed, the Filipino commuter who bothers to take the Metrotren that cannot run faster than 18 kph for fear of dismembering more squatters along the way, is a happier individual than the Japanese commuter zipping along at 200 kph (or 320 kph if he�s taking the Shinkansen or Bullet Train) along its unobstructed tracks Another Happiness survey conducted by a British think tank last July showed that the Filipino was the 17th happiest among 160 nationalities. The index, devised by an organization called New Economics Foundation, was not based on self-ratings, but on how each country measured up on �life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint � the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption.� Based on these criteria, the 200,000 people on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu were adjudged the happiest people on earth, followed by the people of Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama. The G8 industrial countries, then meeting in St. Petersburg, came out poorly: Italy (66th), Germany (81st), Japan (95th), Great Britain (108th), Canada (111th), France (129th), the US (150th) and Russia (172nd) But why Vanuatu? �People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little. This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It�s a place where you don�t worry too much,� said someone who may have eaten too many coconuts. But what about Bora-Bora, Samoa, Tahiti, Kiribati, Tonga, Niue, the Pitcairns, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Christmas island, Sandwich island, and a thousand other island paradises, why are they not also at the top of this list? Most of them are no more consumer-driven than Vanuatu? And why Colombia in second place? The number one producer and distributor of illegal drugs, the murder and kidnap capital of the world, is the second happiest country in the world? Everyone in Colombia must be snorting cocaine. What planet are they talking about here? This is such an unbelievable list, being 17th in it is no great honor at all. A more credible index of Happiness has been released by a British academic from the University of Leicester, who has come out with a World Map of Happiness. More credible because it seems to acknowledge that most people�s idea of happiness involves an urban, modern setting with all of the conveniences, not some idyllic, unattainable island-paradise, with outhouses between coconut trees. In the World Map of Happiness, good health care, a higher GDP, and access to education seem to have been the most important criteria, according to which the happiest countries are: Denmark (1), Switzerland (2), Austria (3), Iceland (4), Bahamas (5), Finland (6), Sweden (7), Bhutan (8), Brunei (9) and Canada (10). Other countries who rated were: the Netherlands (15), Malaysia (17), Norway (19), United Arab Emirates (22), USA (23), Vanuatu (24), Australia (26), Saudi Arabia (31), Germany (35), Kuwait (38), Great Britain (41), Qatar (45), Spain (46), France (62), Hong Kong (63), Indonesia (64), Thailand (76), the Philippines (78), China (82), Japan (90), South Africa (109), India (125), Pakistan (166), and Russia (167). If this makes you now interested in migrating to Bhutan and joining the happy people there, know (from the 2006 Almanac and Book of Facts) that Bhutan is only 6.5% urban, its dominant language is Dzongkha, its principal religion is Lamaistic Buddhism, its head of state is King Jingma Singye Wangchuk, and its capital is Thimphu (pop. 35,000), all obscure and exotic enough to make it sound like Shangri-la, totally divorced from the problems and tensions of modern life. But in March 2005, the king proposed a constitution creating a multi-party system, with an elected parliament empowered to impeach the sovereign. Uh oh. There goes Happiness. How do you say that in Dzongkha? ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles since 2001 in www.tapatt.org. Current articles also in tonyabaya.multiply.com and tapatt.yahoogroups.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Reactions to �Happiness�
Tony, Your story has a technical error. No, we don�t snort cocaine in Colombia , we only export it. Americans are the ones who snort it. Manuel Teodoro, [email protected], Bogota, Colombia, August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww But the good thing is Japan is still more miserable than us in all the surveys mentioned! Jose Custodio, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Sir: Your best column to date, congratulations. I think the first two surveys whose names you cannot recall are the more relevant ones � happiness is a state of mind, and the only way to know if someone is in it is to ask him � something the New Economic Foundation and the World Map Of Happiness did not. I agree with your take on Vanatu and the like however. The noble savage is an urban legend we cannot seem to help ourselves from clinging to. In an excellent book called The Origins of Virtue, Matt Ridley has a fascinating account of how island nations previously considered Rosseau-like states of nature were in fact hotbeds of rape and violence. Victor Paterno, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww When you survey the " Philippines ", is that a survey of Metro Manila or were the provinces also considered? After all, your Piso goes a lot further in the provinces. The air and food is far more fresher and there is definitely less stress. Less traffic. Commodities cost may be even less than in Bhutan or Vanuatu . Nightlife is cheaper. No Joneses to keep up with. Cheaper acquisitions are hailed with abundant praises. You're on first name basis with the Governor, Mayor, street sweepers, traffic aides. local radio DJs, tricycle drivers, Chiefs of the public and private hospitals, Chief of Police, Red Cross staff, etc. And when you add that traditional filipino charm, you have a sure winner. Makes you wonder, who ever does these surveys, maybe hasn�t left the comfy confines of the Glorietta. Rafael Santos II, [email protected], Roxas City, Auguist 02, 2006 MY REPLY. I did not do any of those surveys. I merely commented on them. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Bonjour, Tocayo! Happiness ?! I can attempt ( also !?) to write about it. So many factors ~ ~ ~ that makes for and or ! reaches the DEGREE and QUALITY of THE [attainment of] state > happiness. So, well the very common _expression" Don't worry, Be happy!". So my invitation - come be with me and share some happiness by the poolside, sipping cappucino, and maybe fine tune my golf swing in the driving range we have, also, at polo, swim some, and steam and shower. These are some of the happiness I have BUT, most of all!, my happiness (and the only "raison d'etre " for being still around!) is in my readiness willingness and "ableness" to serve one and all, (except perhaps the H & H {hezbols and hamas!?} in one way or another to give them happiness, SHARE my happiness (or "blessedness ). You know the _expression, share the brightness of your candle and the overall brilliance adds up to HAPPINESS! Tony Oposa, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww A great piece, Tony. Toti Villalon, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww A THOROUGHLY INTERESTING AND - YES - HAPPY READ. THANKS TONY ! Nita Hontiveros-Lichauco, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Isn't it Bhutan where the ruling elite, most of whom were educated in Western countries, changed one key economic indicator from GNP to GNH (Gross National Happiness)? Peace and Joy Every Conscious Moment! Tom and Ruth de Guzman, [email protected], August 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The happiness measure escapes me. In my advanced age I am inclined to see happiness as having a material face. In my youth, happiness was easy to account for. It was easy for us kids to be happy or to be sad. Maturity has erased most of my youthful sadness. The learned tells me that sadness is a step toward happiness and so I need not be sad over sadness. The priests tell me that what is sad is God's mysterious way of sidestepping what could be worst along my path if I was left to continue my original direction. So be happy instead of sad. I don't know but with all these knowledge around me and in me, I feel going for materials to create happiness in me. Of course, being with someone and cared for by another can make me happy at times. But the idea of everybody being a brother's keeper makes caring a duty and somehow that takes much off my happiness. Material things can't buy happiness they say. But give me a treat of ice cream, a free ride, and a bed for the night [with or without a nice female companion], I would be very happy. Measures? Why measure happiness? Of a people? With what? Ogie Reyes, [email protected], August 03, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Happiness is a warm gun, according to a Beatles song a long long time ago. Happiness is the absence of sadness? Happiness is ephemeral. What makes happiness joyful, exuberant? What makes happiness hallow, empty, insane? How can one measure happiness, considering all the variables involved? In the long run, according to a dead economist, we are all dead. For me, this is one very reassuring measure of ultimate happiness!! Felix Zamar, [email protected], August 04, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, From the survey data in the SWS library, Filipinos are only above average in 'happiness', and not close to the top. See attached which puts RP about 30th in a list of 80 countries from the 2001 World Values Survey; SWS does the WVS regularly in the Philippines . The Happiness question is applied in the SWS surveys at least annually. Note: this is simply the way people react to a survey question with the word 'happy', leaving them to define it in their own ways. Mahar Mangahas, [email protected], August 04, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Just reading your article made us happy. I think there should also be a gauge showing happiness over a period of time. When I came fifty years ago we always greeted each other on the street. Morale even in traffic was much more friendly than today. Now there is a suspicious glance when I walk. I greet people anyway, as it makes me feel better, be it just a smile. I don't expect any response and am pleased when it happens. Linda and I pick targets as we ride in our car.. We have a flower girl whom we watched grow up over the past three years. We always buy and talk till the light changes. We helped her buy a new dress for graduation. It is a beautiful smile we get, and it now has little to do with money, A crippled man on EDSA we also regularly greet and contribute. We have become friends. Jack Sherman, [email protected], August 04, 2006. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Well, I think happiness is not about money, really. It's the state of the heart's contentment. Marie Franz Jeruta, [email protected], August 08, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, I am amused with your article on happiness because all the basis for the surveys are all wrong. Anyway, this is what I can say. When we speak of happiness it is a state which depends on outside sources, like when one receives his allocation from abroad, the person is happy. When he is living with a good salary and all the amenities in life, he is happy. But there is more than happiness and that is the term JOY. It is a state that whether you have all the amenities in life or not; whethere there is war going on or not, you still feel that inner peace. And this can only be attained when you are at peace within and with the Creator. Thank you for this opportunity to say something. God bless you. Ma. Eleanor Lerio, [email protected], August 16, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reaction to �Christmas in July ( July 26, 2006 ) The SONA recently of GMA if for all intents and purposes at least gives the Filipino citizenry a sense of hope for the nation. The plans for the immediate future at least gives us a sense of direction and targets/goals which everyone of us should strive for. Let us all put our acts together and get rid of partisan politics which has brought us nothing but disappointments and the continuous exodus from the Philippines of our valuable talents which only contribute to the success of other nations. It might be wishful thinking if ever the plans of the GMA administration would happen but at least this might be the light at the end of the tunnel which every Filipino aspires to see in his lifetime. If ever these plans become a reality, then the entire Filipino people will have something to be proud of and this may beckon those which have left the country to come back. And as one great politician once said, �Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. If only every single Filipino will do this, then our country can really move forward despite of. Robert Sanchez, [email protected], August 07, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww MY REPLY. Actually, the Jews were there first. But they were driven out by the Romans in the year 70 AD. They started going back in trickles to Judea in the late 19th century, through the Zionist Movement organized by Theodor Herzl. The trickle became a flood YOU WROTE: �After the Second World War when survivors of the Holocaust sought to go back to the land of their ancestors. But, of course, the Arabs had settled there for more than 1,800 years, after the Jews had been expelled by the Romans�.�. Additional Info: Actually, the Arabic word for "Palestinian" is "Filistini"(some accents of Arabic say "Falestini") and the word is a cognate of the word for "Philistine." In fact, the name "Palestina" was the word used by the Romans for the area that included modern Israel (it was part of "Syria-Palestina") and it was directly taken from the Aramaic/Syriac word that described the "Land of the Philistines." During the Roman times, the people living there weren't "Arabs" per se, and were instead a hodge-podge mix of Aramaic-speaking Semites which included Jews, Philistines, Samaritans (Israelites who are supposedly descended from the Northern Tribes, and retain an older form of the Jewish religion), Aramean traders, Nabataeans, and other tribes etc, etc... In fact, the word "Arab" is used generally among Arabs themselves to describe any person who speaks any Arabic dialect as if it were his/her native language (just in the same way that any person who speaks Cebuano is considered to be "Bisaya^" even if he or she may not have been born one). (In fact, even Copts from Egypt - who aren't descendants of Arabs and are instead descendants of the ancient Egyptians [imagine the Pharoahs and their people] who became Christians and did not convert to Islam when the Arab Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula arrived - ARE CONSIDERED TO BE ARABS on the basis of speaking Arabic as their native language. ex-UN Sec-Gen Boutros Boutros-Ghali was from a Coptic Christian family.) What happened after the advent of Islam in the Middle East is that Aramaic (later called "Syriac" in the Post-Roman period and the middle ages of Europe) continued to be spoken by the Semites living in the area but slowly, due to the heavy influence of the Arabic language spoken by the new administrators of the area, the people started changing their pronunciation of Aramaic/Syriac so that it gradually became Levantine Arabic. Among Middle Eastern Christians back then, Aramaic/Syriac continued to be their liturgical language, while the "blend of Aramaic+Arabic" eventually became the new lingua franca for everyday conversation. The Palestinians generally say that they were always there ever since, and in fact, the Bible doesn't consider the Philistines (the pre-cursors of the Palestinians) to be newcomers. They were, in fact, considered indigenous to the area especially from the Gaza/Askelon area, except that they "never left" and never "underwent Slavery in Egypt to later return to their Promised Land." In the entire course of history, however, there were lots of newcomers into the area who mixed in (intermarried) with the local Canaanite+Philistine+other-Semitic-tribes (whom the Romans referred to as "Palestinians") who were already living there. There were black Muslims, Muslim Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula , Yemenite "Arabs" who moved in... Which is why on TV, there are some instances where some Palestinians may appear to look like they're mulattoes. Palestinians who are generally descended from the indigenous Semites who were there long ago (many of whom are Christian Palestinians - from whence Dawn Zulueta's Palestinian heritage is from) physically resemble their Lebanese cousins and - not surprisingly - also closely resemble Ultra-Orthodox or Hasidic Jews (because these Jews never intermarried with Northern Europeans and thereby retained their dark-hair and heavy Mid-Eastern features) as well as numerous Sephardim (Jews who were expelled from Spain) and Mizrahim (Jews who never left the Middle East). I have a good Lebanese friend in Singapore who is a Sunni Muslim, but is always - as in ALWAYS � mistaken for an Israeli or a Hasidic Jew in parties when he - for the heck of it - asks people if they can guess where he's from. Anyway, the bottom-line is that generally, the Palestinians claim - and can biblically support such claim - that they were generally there at the same time (and perhaps even before) the Jews "returned" to the Promised Land from Egypt (as recounted in EXODUS). The area wasn't really "homogeneous", especially when the Greeks (Seleucids) and Romans started administering the area. Other Palestinians even go further to claim that as there were so many different types of Jewish sects during the time of Jesus (Essenes, Pharisees, Saducees, and even Samaritans), some members of these Jewish sects got Christianized and some became Ebionite Christians (who continued on with Jewish practices but considered Jesus to be the Messiah, but not as God or "son of God") during the time when Christian sects were popular. Then, when the religious authorities from Rome and Constantinople wanted to unify Christianity into ONE belief system devoid of little minute variations, these "deviant" and "heretical" Christians were persecuted and forced to go underground... Once these Ebionite (Jewish) Christians found themselves under Arab Muslim protection (because the Arab Muslims tolerated deviations within Christianity), some of these Ebionite Christians became Muslim since Islam and Ebionite Christianity are in many ways 95% alike. (Islam and Ebionite Christianity have strict no-pork and dietary and "don't let the animal suffer its slaughter" restrictions + both consider Jesus to be the Messiah, but not divine.) Indeed, with the aforementioned story as their backdrop, there are Palestinians who say that some of them are descended from Jews who remained in the area, and switched from strict Judaism to Ebionite Christianity and, THEN to Islam. YOU WROTE: �The British inherited the problem from the Turks, who were defeated by the British in 1917.The Turks, being Muslims like the Arabs, would have barred the Jews from re-occupying Judea . Winston Churchill, at one time, offered Madagascar to the Jews, instead of Judea , but the Jews were not interested.� Actually, the Ottoman Turks didn't really have such an opposition to Jewish settlement of Palestine . In fact, after the "total victory" of the "Reconquista" in 1492 (also the year when Columbus chanced upon America) and the subsequent expulsion of Spanish Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism as decreed by the "Reyes Catolicos" of the houses of Castille and Aragon, a certain Ottoman Sultan, Bayazid II, had the bright idea of inviting all Jews - especially the expelled Sephardim - into Ottoman Territory. Just like his predecessor Mehmet II, who liked Jews, and generally preferred to hire them for technical "consulting" jobs or as physicians and economic advisors, financiers, bankers, Bayazid saw that the invitation and influx of numerous Jews would benefit the economy and culture of the Ottoman Empire . It was because of this that Jews were numerous in many parts of the Ottoman Empire - from places like Salonika in Greece (which was a major Jewish center where numerous Spanish-speaking Jews moved), including the old Jewish Homeland known by the name given to it by the Romans: Palestine. (There are areas in Turkey which have Jewish communities whose first language was Medieval Judeo-Spanish which did not pronounce the Ge or Gi or J as an H-like sound but rather like a French ZH sound and the X was rendered as an SH-sound rather than an H-like sound in Modern Spanish. Many of them later migrated to Latin America .) (Incidentally, there are numerous anecdotes stating that the Founder of Modern Turkey, Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, was of Jewish origin. He was born in Salonika , now in Greece , and was said to come from a group of crypto-Jews who were followers of the "false Messiah" Sabetai Zevi who later converted to Islam and brought many of his followers into Islam with him. These followers became known as the Doenme "renegades" in Turkish, because the rumor was that they outwardly acted like Muslims, but quietly observed the Jewish Sabbath and other Jewish holidays and devotions. It was from the Doenme community of Salonika that Kemal Mustafa Ataturk is said to have come from) It's not so much that Ottoman Turks did not want Jewish immigration into the "Holy Land." The Ottoman Turks just didn't feel that it was necessary to expel the numerous non-Jews, descended from Semites who never left the area and had ended up becoming Christians and Muslims at various points in time, just to accommodate the newcomers. One other thing to note is that Palestine actually had a huge population of Christians before (around 25%), though smaller in percentage than Lebanon ... These Palestinian Christians (who were mostly middle to upper class professionals and businessmen who had Western-style education in "Convent Schools" [many times, French-run]) moved to Latin America in droves while others went to the USA . Latin America , especially Chile , is home to a huge diaspora community of Palestinian Christians. (Many are Orthodox, others Roman Catholic or Greek Catholic [Orthodox-style rituals, architecture, art, clothing, but under the Vatican 's jurisdiction], and there are a few Anglicans. I seem to recall seeing a rough demographic estimate of "Palestine's" religious groupings in the late 1800's which showed that while Muslims formed 45 to 50% of the population, and while there were 25% Christians, there were also around 25% Jews. What was seen as a problem was when the ethno-religious balance would end up with 90% non-Arabic speaking Jews and the rest being the non-Jews. It was that which scared everyone already in the area - sometimes scaring even the Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews themselves who often spoke Arabic natively. In fact, some operatives in the PLO had Jewish descent. One key player in the Munich hostage-taking operation was a Palestinian (if I am not mistaken, that should have been the terrorist who wore a Cowboy hat and Rayban shades at the airport) whose father was a Christian Arab and whose mother was an Arabic-speaking Jew. Anyway, I hope this helps. Let's remember that traditionally, Islam's sphere of influence had been much more tolerant of Jews than Christendom had been. During the time of the Crusades, the Jews living in the Holy Land were more likely to have ROOTED FOR SALADDIN'S Muslim Army than for the Crusaders. Doctrinally, Islam instructs Muslims to treat "People of the Book" (Christians and Jews) with respect and tolerance, and for a long time, that had been the norm. It is the advent of and increasing influence of Wahhabism (the "sect" of Islam native to the Najd Dessert area where the Al-Saud family is from) that causes the stereotype of intolerance against everyone else. Heck, Wahhabis discriminate even against Shiite Muslims and Sufi Muslims. And since it is the Wahhabis who have a lot of the Petrodollars then it is Wahhabism - as opposed to the more tolerant "Sufi" strain of Islam that gets propagated more through "scholarships" granted by the Saudi Royal family to get Muslims from poor countries to study in Wahhabi-run Madrasas. Ooops, this has gotten long... Best regards, Orion Perez Dumdum, [email protected],August 07, 2006 PS. Sufi and Wahhabi aren't in the same type of category as Sunni versus Shiite. "Sufi" and "Wahhabi" are like "schools of thought" whereas Sunni versus Shiite are "sects" similar to Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and the various sectarian divisions that make up the wider Protestant grouping. (Sufi and Wahhabi would be a little bit more like "Jesuit" or "Franciscan" influence versus, say, "Opus Dei" influence.) OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |