3 Happiest Places on Earth - Netherlands, Switzerland and Bhutan

In the first 3 chapters of "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner, I learned about the Dutch, Swiss and Bhutanese - some of the happiest people on earth.  Here are the top reasons why they are the happiest -

Netherlands

I’ve actually been to Amsterdam before but I never knew that the Dutch are obsessed with happiness.  They have a godfather of happiness – a Dutch professor named Ruut Veenhoven, who has an extensive research on happiness called the World Database of Happiness. The Dutch even hold happiness conferences and publish a Journal of Happiness Studies. (I didn’t know you can actually make a profession out of happiness.  Cool!)

Happiness’ politically correct term, if you want to google any of the research studies, is “subjective well-being” or SWB. Here are some interesting findings on SWB:

• People with college degrees are happier than those without; though people with advance degrees are less happy than those with just a BA.
• Busy people are happier than those with too little to do.
• Wealthy people are happier than poor ones, but only slightly.
• Income distribution does not predict happiness. Countries with wide gaps between the rich and poor are no less happy than countries where the wealth is more distributed equally.  Sometimes, they are happier. (Strongly agree!  Case in point - the Philippines. Personally, I think the Philippines should have made it to the list of happy places but sadly, it didn’t.  But it still tops my list though.)

Switzerland

I’ve only been to Zurich during layovers but after reading about the Swiss and Switzerland, the place now intrigues me.  

Switzerland’s economy is based on banking but ironically, the Swiss hate to talk about money because they know money triggers envy.  And this is precisely why the Swiss are generally happy – they try, at all costs, to avoid provoking envy in others since envy is a source of unhappiness. Cool people.  Besides, as how one Swiss puts it, a rich Swiss person doesn’t have to show off his money.  Everyone knows he’s rich because the Swiss know everything about their neighbors.  When a person actually starts showing off like flashing a fancy car, people suspect that he’s facing some financial trouble!

It’s also funny how the author stresses the difference between the Swiss and Americans.  Weiner says, in the US, the worst thing you can be is a loser.  In Switzerland, the worst thing you can be is a flashy winner (nouveau riche).

Another interesting facet of the Swiss is how they view things.  They don’t use superlatives like super or awesome to describe things, only c’est pa mal or not bad.  They prefer to stay in the middle range than fluctuate in great highs and terrible lows. 

What intrigues me though most about Switzerland is for a place that is considered happy, its people are generally humorless.  They don’t joke about anything - ever.   As the book mentions, their humorlessness can actually be traced back in the 17th century when there was a prohibition of public laughter in Basel (Unimaginable…why would anyone impose such law?).  

So while in Switzerland, don’t be surprised if you get notes from strangers.  If you leave your car dirty, you might just get a note saying “Please wash your car”.  If you’ve been too noisy one late night, someone might pin a note on your door saying “Please, no laughing after midnight.”  Wow, I have to tone down my laughter when in Switzerland then. Haha…

Bhutan

I have blogged about Bhutan a couple of times already and after reading the chapter on Bhutan, I am fascinated by the place more than ever.    Here are some new discoveries:

• Bhutan is the world’s first non-smoking nation; the sale of tobacco is banned.
• It is the last country in the world to get television – in 1999.
• It didn’t have a single road, school, hospital and not even a  national currency until 1962.
• A few years ago, they installed their first traffic light but the king didn’t like it and everyone agreed that it was a bad idea so they decided to put it down and put back the traffic cop.
• In Bhutan, there are more monks than soldiers. 
• Dogs are the kings of the road.
• The Bhutanese shy away from killing insects! 
• They also consider 13 a lucky number.
• Bhutanese don’t care much about making money.  Though poor, they’d rather forego millions of revenues from tourism or selling timber to preserve their resources.
• Bhutanese don’t pollute, not because there are penalties imposed but because they fear the greenhouse deities.
• In Bhutan, you will see hand-painted signages of positive thoughts.  The author passed by several signages that said “Thanks” and though he didn’t know what they were thanking passers-by for, it felt good, he says.
• In Bhutan, what passes as crime isn’t crime to most nations.  As the author shares, there was one morning when the headline read - “Sneak sales on the street, in the dark”.  He thought it was the sales of drugs or firearms, only to find out, it was the sales of zucchini and asparagus on a day when sellers weren’t supposed to sell in the market!

One might conclude that perhaps, the Bhutanese people are happy because they don’t know what they are missing out from the rest of the world, but as the author points out, among the Bhutanese who study abroad, 90% return to Bhutan and forego Western lifestyle and incomes. Amazing.

I think what best sums up the values of the Bhutanese is this one signage which the author passed by on one roadside which reads:

“When the last tree is cut, when the last river is emptied, when the last fish is caught, only man will realize that he can not eat money.”

The Bhutanese clearly know what matters in life. :)