The Geography of Bliss

Could happiness be a matter of geography? Eric Weiner, National Public Radio correspondent from New Delhi, Jerusalem and Tokyo, travelled through the world in search of an answer. The author wanted to check in practice the scientific information from the happiness rankings which are part of the World Database of Happiness, and he chose to visit happy and unhappy countries alike in search of the reasons for such (un)happiness. He visited a total of ten countries, starting in Holland and ending in the USA. On the way, he passed through Switzerland, Bhutan, India, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand and Great Britain. The result was a humorous description of multicultural experiences, something between a chronicle of his travels and an essay about the reasons for human happiness. He concludes that the cultural make-up of each people puts one’s preconceptions about happiness to the test, and there is a surprise as you turn each page. How could you imagine that, in Bhutan, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be replaced by Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH) when taking economic decisions, and that this is one of the happiest countries in the world?