Vietnam happiest country in Asia
Vietnam is the 12th happiest country on earth, and the happiest in Asia, according to a study published Wednesday that measured people’s well-being and their impact on the environment.
The tiny South Pacific Ocean archipelago of Vanuatu is the happiest in the Happy Planet Index, compiled by the British think-tank New Economics Foundation.
Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama complete the top five.
Out of Asian nations Singapore was ranked lowest at 131.
Island nations performed particularly well in the rankings. But Vanuatu, with a population of around 200,000, topped them all.
“Don’t tell too many people, please,” said Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online, the republic’s online newspaper.
“People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little,” he told The Guardian.
“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.”
“The only things we fear are cyclones or earthquakes.”
The index combines life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint—the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption.
Zimbabwe finished at the bottom of the 178 countries ranked, below second-worst performer Swaziland, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine.
The Group of Eight industrial powers meet in Saint Petersburg this weekend but have not much to smile about, according to the index.
Italy came out best in 66th place, ahead of Germany (81), Japan (95), Britain (108), Canada (111), France (129), the United States (150) and Russia, in lowly 172nd place.
Andrew Simms, the foundation’s policy director, said the index “addresses the relative success or failure of countries in giving their citizens a good life while respecting the environmental resource limits on which all our lives depend.”
Nic Marks, the center’s head for well-being, added: “It is clear that no single nation listed in the Happy Planet Index has got everything right.
“But the index does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all, whilst living within our environmental means,” he said, according to British daily The Guardian.
“The challenge is: can we learn the lessons and apply them?”
Thanh Nien / Agence France Presse - July 12, 2006.
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