“More than 70% of people worldwide said they experienced a lot of enjoyment, smiled or laughed a lot, felt well-rested and felt treated with respect."
Those of us who work in the play industries have delivering happiness as one of our missions. That was why I thought you would find the results of a Gallup Global Emotions Poll to be of interest. It is a ranking of the world’s happiest countries. Gallup conducted 153,000 interviews with adults in 148 countries.
Who were the happiest countries. According to Gallup: "For the first time in Gallup’s 10-year history of global tracking, all of the top 10 countries with the highest Positive Experience Index scores are in Latin America"
Highest Positive Experience Index Scores
Paraguay 89
Colombia 84
Ecuador 84
Guatemala 84
Honduras 82
Panama 82
Venezuela 82
Costa Rica 81
El Salvador 81
Nicaragua 81
What should make us all happy (irony intended) is that according to Gallup: “More than 70% of people worldwide said they experienced a lot of enjoyment, smiled or laughed a lot, felt well-rested and felt treated with respect. Additionally, 50% of people said they learned or did something interesting the day before the interview.” That’s despite a lot of bad economies, terrorist attacks, war and threat of war. People are far more resilient than we think.
And what is the secret to being happy?
According to Gallup is: “That so many people report experiencing positive emotions in Latin America at least partly reflects the cultural tendency in the region to focus on the positives in life. In fact, the single variable that predicts results on both the Positive and Negative Experience Indexes is country of origin, suggesting cultural bias exists in how people answer these questions.”
Gallup goes on to say: “Three in four adults worldwide say they smiled or laughed a lot the previous day, with the percentage dropping below a majority in only three countries: Tunisia (47%), Serbia (43%) and Turkey (43%).”
This runs contrary to all the advertising that is produced for “Save the Children” and the Catholic Ministries. I guess they are laughing and having a great time in between starving, death and every day living. Or are Save the Children, Catholic church and the world health organizations pushing their own agenda? But then again, who would give money to countries that promote themselves as being on the top ten of happiest countries.
I agree with these results, not only because I’my from Colombia but I attribute this fact to my previous life experiences, such as childhood, adolescence, and now adulthood. People in Colombia and Latin America are always living the moment, without concerns about tomorrow, even under circumstances where they might not have anything to eat the next day, they will sell or simply give in whatever they own at the moment, just to have a pleasant time with what they enjoy the most. I consider this one fact to these results, there may be more to it like the environment, climate, culture as mentioned on the article,social life, personality, etc.
The list is pure fantasy. With the exception of El Salvadore ( 80/175 ), the corruption index for the other 9 countries are in the 90s and well into the hundred. Moreover, the crime/ murder rates in Guatemala and Costa Rica are only surpassed by two active war zones – Iraq and Afghanistan !!
So much for the Happiness Index.