Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world

[Lazie]

Against a background of harsh economic times, Jamaica has been rated the third happiest place on earth.

In light of that study, RJR News sought reactions from some Jamaicans:
"I'd like to know how they got that result. Did they just call up a thousand Jamaicans and take a random sample, what were the methods used. But generally I believe we are some warm people, I don't know about happy but maybe we accept things and just mellow out."
"I think we are truly happy but sometimes we mask the sadness because I think small things make us happy."

"It depends on who looks within themselves and determine how they want happiness. If you just get up everyday saying that you don't have this and you don't have that and you get stressed out."

"Yes I was very interested when I saw that report. I wondered if it was only the tourists that they interviewed? I don't know which gully side they went on to do that interview because most of Jamaica I don't think we are happy. We are very frustrated because everyday the cost of living goes up."

"Once you hear music playing or you see a family member or you hear church it is a totally different situation especially once we have a gathering. I believe it."

The UK based New Economics Foundation report says Jamaica is the third greenest and happiest country on the planet.
The Think Tank measures life expectancy, happiness and the environmental impact of different nations.

http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/19519/26/

[Bricktop]

But don't we bun a fire pon a HAPPY MAN in Jamaica?

[Jangle]

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world............for a drug dealer.

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world............for indisciplined drivers.

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world ............for murderers.

[Lazie]

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world............for a drug dealer.

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world............for indisciplined drivers.

Jamaica rated third happiest place in the world ............for murderers.

Is it possible those that conducted the survey was ..... "happy!" I've heard of the effects of the weed.

[Bricktop]

Come on now man is it money alone that makes one happy? Are you happier living in the snow, working 60 hours a week and fending off racism?

[Islandman]

It is more of an environment and life expectancy index but even so, the results are hard to take seriously.

The top 10:

Costa Rica,Dominican Republic,Jamaica,Guatemala,Vietnam,Colombia,Cuba,
El Salvador,Brazil,Honduras

Haiti was 42nd, Iraq was 79th, and the USA was 114th.

[Islandman]

As compared to what?

[Gamma]

this was a "don't worry, be happy" survey?

[Bricktop]

As compared to what?

TYuh mek it sound like if you live in Jamaica is a hog sty yuh live inna.

[Assasin]

All mi can say is send a copy to Ed Bartlett and his tourism team. This should be plastered all over TV and advertisement.

[Islandman]

All me ask is what you comparing the cold weather, racism and long working hours to.

If you comparing it to living above HWT , driving round inna SUV and going to Quad pon the weekend, going to the Mound to watch cricket and North Coast once a month, then that is one thing, but if it is to life in Mathews Lane, Riverton City or even some place a country dat still a use pit toilet then the cold weather and hard work sound good.

The reality is that most of our countrymen would take that option at least for a while if given the choice, so that in itself says a lot.

[Time]

Against a background of harsh economic times, Jamaica has been rated the third happiest place on earth.

In light of that study, RJR News sought reactions from some Jamaicans:
"I'd like to know how they got that result. Did they just call up a thousand Jamaicans and take a random sample, what were the methods used. But generally I believe we are some warm people, I don't know about happy but maybe we accept things and just mellow out."
"I think we are truly happy but sometimes we mask the sadness because I think small things make us happy."

"It depends on who looks within themselves and determine how they want happiness. If you just get up everyday saying that you don't have this and you don't have that and you get stressed out."

"Yes I was very interested when I saw that report. I wondered if it was only the tourists that they interviewed? I don't know which gully side they went on to do that interview because most of Jamaica I don't think we are happy. We are very frustrated because everyday the cost of living goes up."

"Once you hear music playing or you see a family member or you hear church it is a totally different situation especially once we have a gathering. I believe it."

The UK based New Economics Foundation report says Jamaica is the third greenest and happiest country on the planet.
The Think Tank measures life expectancy, happiness and the environmental impact of different nations.

http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/19519/26/

Actually if you can afford a house in the hills with AC, hot water, pool, a luxury SUV, security guards, a plane ticket every month then no where ho better than yard.

[Historian]

Very Interesting Results!

Is it possible those that conducted the survey was ..... "happy!" I've heard of the effects of the weed.

Lead singer Peter Morgan and his siblings in Morgan Heritage must have been grossly mistaken when they recorded their recent hit, “Nothing To Smile About”!! Based on the published results of this survey, Morgan Heritage was seemingly mistaken.

Personally speaking, I am extremely happy to see the results of this survey, although the results themselves are so surprising that the accuracy of the survey and its results are very questionable! But, these results can be used for whatever purpose, for example by our Ministry of Tourism.

On the one hand, we have one of the most entertainment oriented societies on the planet. I’m open to correction here, but I think that statistics published recently showed that Jamaica had some 2,700 registered entertainment activities for the year 2008 (that is, activities for which permission was obtained from the police). This, according to that Observer newspaper report, averaged 43 entertainment activities per day for Jamaica!!

Likewise, Jamaica’s penchant for entertainment activities of a cultural nature is such that the word “Irie” has been used for positive reasons in concise descriptions of Jamaica on many occasions!! Jamaica is way up top among the “party places” of the world, and there’s no question about this in my mind!

Nevertheless, even when we look at the “well-off” Jamaicans living above Halfway Tree, we still see distinct signs of a sick society that is racked by extremely high homicide and other violent crime statistics (security guards will seemingly always have employment), we see a high cost of living, and we see a strong dependency (less, of course, in middle class upper St Andrew) on remittances. Outside of the suburbs, the picture becomes immensely worse.

Open the doors for Jamaicans to migrate to the USA or Western European countries such as Great Britain and we will find that “living in the snow, working 60 hours a week and fending off racism,” as a poster described it in a very relevant comment in this thread, will be pushed off the front burner for Jamaicans anxious to make something of their lives and those of their family members! We Jamaicans have been doing so for decades, and most who actually return home do so at, or else close to, retirement age.

By the way, just check the number of Jamaicans registered with the Reggae Boyz Forum who actually live and work in Jamaica!

What finally convinced me not take these results seriously are the other countries listed as the Top 10 Happiest: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras!! Was low standard of living by the masses one of the main criteria for happiness?

Finally, if the slant was deliberately towards the Caribbean/Latin American region, where do countries such as Barbados and St. Lucia fall in the scheme of things?

[Za]

The HPI is an innovative measure that shows the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the world. It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by country, people live long and happy lives. The second compilation of the global HPI, published in July 2009, shows that we are still far from achieving sustainable well-being and puts forward a vision of what we need to do to get there.

The Index doesn’t reveal the ‘happiest’ country in the world. It shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens. The nations that top the Index aren’t the happiest places in the world, but the nations that score well show that achieving, long, happy lives without over-stretching the planet’s resources is possible.

http://www.happyplanetindex.org/learn/

The HPI shows that around the world, high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being, and that it is possible to produce high well-being without excessive consumption of the Earth’s resources. It also reveals that there are different routes to achieving comparable levels of well-being. The model followed by the West can provide widespread longevity and variable life satisfaction, but it does so only at a vast and ultimately counter-productive cost in terms of resource consumption.
Global and European

The HPI strips the view of the economy back to its absolute basics: what we put in (resources), and what comes out (human lives of different length and happiness). The resulting global index of the 143 nations for which new, improved data is available, reveals that the world as a whole has a long way to go. In terms of delivering long and meaningful lives within the Earth’s environmental limits – all nations could do better. No country achieves an overall ‘high’ score on the Index, and no country does well on all three indicators.

Also available is the HPI for European countries, compiled in 2007. Based on the carbon footprints of European countries, it provides a picture of the relative carbon efficiency of European nations.
Steering towards success

No single country listed in the Happy Planet Index has everything right. This is what is acknowledged by the graffiti on the title above. While some countries are more efficient than others at delivering long, happy lives for their people, every country has its problems and no country performs as well as it could. Yet clear patterns do emerge that point to how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all, whilst living within our environmental means.

Our challenge now is to learn the lessons of the HPI and apply them. The happy planet charter, launched alongside the latest report in July 2009, provides some key goals to help the planet achieve good lives that do not cost the earth.

[Za]

What the HPI doesn’t tell us

The HPI is not an indicator of the happiest country on the planet, or the best place to live. Nor does it indicate the most developed country in the traditional sense, or the most environmentally friendly. Instead, the HPI combines all of these providing a method of comparing countries’ progress towards the goal of providing long-term well-being for all without exceeding the limits of equitable resource consumption.

As is generally the case with composite indicators, it is possible for countries to achieve comparable scores on the HPI for quite different reasons. However, because the HPI consists of three separate components that are conceptually distinct from one another yet combined intuitively, analysing the differences between such countries is both relatively straightforward and extremely informative from a policy perspective.