Gross National Happiness

yesterday, while doing my research for my major paper for polity & governance of china, i came across a book entitled "Gross National Happiness and Material Welfare in Bhutan and Japan". i remember Sir Leland's lecture during sophomore year about a country that measured their development via a happiness indicator. imagine that.

here's an excerpt of the introduction of the book. i actually found it quite interesting :) very Amartya Sen ang pinaghuhugutan haha.

"Empirical evidence strongly suggests that modern economic development has not increased subjective well-being in high-income countries, despite manifold increases of income over just a couple of decades. In many domains, people even experience of deterioration of their quality of life as competitive forces grow along with incomes.

Bhutan has taken ownership of its development strategy and has come up with a unique development philosophy under the title "Gross National Happiness" (GNH) formulated by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan in the late 1970s. This expresses the idea that development should serve the well-being of the people and that economic growth is only a means for, not the end of, development. The Bhutanese government is now working on the Bhutan Development Index which will be composed of GNH indicators to monitor and evaluate its development process."

note: GNH indicators are measures over holistic human development and ecological
sustainability [cultural preservation, equitable socio-economic development, good
governance, environment conservation]


with GNH, do you think the Philippines will be able to get a good measure? :O

remains to be seen.