Thursday evening there was a panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club on the topic of Gross National Happiness. Featured speakers included Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, Home Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, pictured second from the right in the picture below.
Gross National Happiness is the idea that if happiness is the most important thing to the people, then it is the responsibility of the state to facilitate it. Instead of using traditional measurements of growth or progress that focus only on economic measurements, GNH takes a different approach that turns on the belief that the most profound needs of human beings are not physical or material.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck coined the term in 1972 and it has been a guiding principle of the Bhutanese government ever since. Gross National Happiness is built upon four pillars:
- Sustainable and equitable social economic development
- Conservation of the environment
- Promotion and preservation of culture
- Good governance
Criticisms about GNH include that it relies on solely subjective measurements. His Excellency the Home Minister conceded that this was the case and explained that there are efforts in the international GNH movement to develop indices that more objectively measure it.
More importantly, he said, GNH is not meant to be a measurement. Instead, it is meant to be a destination or an objective towards which the government works on behalf of the people. It guides decisions rather than being a measurable result of decisions already made.
It is an interesting concept, don’t you think? What if we did find some way to guide development and progress rather than just unrelenting growth driven by the economic gains of a minority of people?
christao408 
I know less about Bhutan than North Korea. But it does sound a bit cheesy. After all, would they be coining up a term like that if they have the means to boost GDP? And I most certainly would not be very happy being forced to wear national uniforms! There’s been quite a few news article about their recent mock election — a trial to iron out the issues before the real one next year. Funny how many folks interviewed seemed to rather not be bothered with it altogether. I guess that’s what you get for having a country of 2 million farmers under a series of US/UK educated young kings — they’re way ahead of their subjects. Too bad they don’t really have any good examples among their neighbors.Also sort of reminds me of HK in the 70s and 80s, when there was no democracy at all but no one cares. The colonial government ran unobtrusively and efficiently in the background without making much of a fuss about anything, unlike China.
In general it’s a good idea but the challenge is (as the proponents of GNH say themselves) is measuring it. However, it’s similar to when governments (esp. the Viennese mayor likes doing this) publish surveys stating how much the population enoys living in a given place.
Maybe I should advise the Buthanese government how to make this index more “scientific”. *muhahaha*
I am kind of a bohemian. I think happiness is much more important wealth. A big mansion, a Ferrari, a Valentino suit, a Prada bag and etc cannot really bring true happiness.