The sad state of our national happiness
The Himalayan country of Bhutan is known for its unique measure of economic and moral progress: the Gross National Happiness (GNH). According to Bhutan’s first legal code, if the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government.
There is more to Bhutan’s GNH than what meets the eye. It is not merely referring to the ability of its people to laugh off their problems away. Rather than focusing strictly on the western world’s quantitative economic measures, the GNH considers an evolving mix of quality-of-life factors.
There are four pillars of GNH as the term has evolved over the years, and these are good governance, sustainable development, preservation and promotion of culture, and environmental conservation.These pillars provide the foundation for happiness manifested in the nine domains of psychological well-being, living standards, good governance, health, community vitality, cultural diversity, time use, and ecological resilience.
Owing to our fixation to align with the western world, the Philippines has adopted the Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as key economic growth measures. Before the pandemic, the Philippine economy has been promising and proven resilient to crisis. The Philippine economy did not fall to its knees during the Asian financial crisis and the most recent financial crisis. Although the Philippine economy was doing well before the pandemic, it is mindboggling to note that most Filipino people are languishing in poverty. Hunger, homelessness, and lack of access to other basic needs tend to overshadow the Filipino billionaires’ names who land in the Forbes list. Behind the smiles of a few Filipinos who belong to the rich and the famous are a nameless and faceless multitude of our countrymen engulfed by the dark shadows of poverty.
The people’s suffering has become more manifest during this pandemic. Filipinos have been feeling less and less happy in recent years, as shown in the 2021 World Happiness Report that places the country at 61st among 149 countries, with a score of 5.88.
This report belies the government’s claim of success in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government takes pride in the fewer number of Filipinos infected with the virus compared to other countries. This figure should not be used as the sole measure of success since it has no meaning to people who, although spared from infection, have suffered from the more damaging effects of loss of jobs, livelihood, and sanity-breaking isolation.
Using Bhutan’s measure of economic and moral progress as the benchmark, the government may have already lost its purpose for miserably failing to create happiness for its people.