Well this was an odd duck. Weiner, a former correspondent for NPR, decides to check out the common lists for happiest nations on Earth (circa 2008) to see if, indeed, are they? Some names generally Scandinavian) crop up all the time, and others are less common. And for good measure, he tossed in one at the opposite end of the spectrum (Moldovia). I suspect it’s even more grim these days. Using his skills and connections as a foreign correspondent, he questioned local officials, academics, psychiatrists, and random folk. What he discovered is that what a population values in a country determines its overall level of happiness, and that can differ widely.
In Switzerland, happiness regarding one’s country involves things running as they should. Trains are on time, and there is no mess anywhere. Bhutan, on the other hand, has very little outside access and a very homogeneous population. A monarchy, they have a Gross National Happiness standard, which seems to work quite well for them. Ironically, at the top of his chart by his estimation, is Iceland, a small rock of ice and fire, which spends a good portion of the year in perpetual twilight, and is always down to party.
It was an interesting read, although almost necessarily over broad, but I was greatly entertained by the sticker the LA County Library system had placed on the spine of the book. Supposedly they had difficulty identifying the genre, because it showed a picture of a sailing ship and the word, “Adventure!” Ah ha, I really don’t suspect pirates were involved here. Snerk.