Hatrack River Forum: Happiest Country in the World

This is topic Happiest Country in the World in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :

A few years back I was working on a regional socio-economic indicators mapping project. Other tasks took priority and it got set aside. Just last week, I ran into a colleague who got both the funding and the time to do a similar project but even better. Lucky gal!

And then just this evening, I ran across this nifty schema looking for a world map for a children's project. Check it out:

Find Your Country

Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :

Wow. The Danes. Who'da thunk it?

If we define happiness as the lack of suicide, I think this map might look a little different. Scandanavians off themselves with surprising frequency. It reminds me of Chris Rock's line from "The Longest Yard." (I paraphrase) "What do you white guys have to be depressed about? You're white!"

Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :

my country is too small to show on the map [Frown]

Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :

Those rotten Danes with their coercive redistribution. How dare they claim to be happy?

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kama:
my country is too small to show on the map

So is mine.

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kama:
my country is too small to show on the map

Where are you Kama? I thought you were in Poland and it shows nicely on the map.

Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :

I think she's working in Luxembourg.

Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :

yup, Luxembourg.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

A larger map along with a list of countries ordered by "happiness".

Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :

aha! the map's still too small, but at least it's listed [Wink]

Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :

Umm.. I question their methodology.. SAUDI ARABIA ranks very highly??? What, did they only ask the men?

I wonder if they asked the woman who got lashed 50 times after being raped.

This is about as useful and scientific as the "Top Ten Movie Presidents" list that came out the other day.

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

quote:
Umm.. I question their methodology.. SAUDI ARABIA ranks very highly??? What, did they only ask the men?

I'm interested in the methodology as well, but I'm not willing to dismiss its findings just because some of them are surprising to me.

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

quote:
This is about as useful and scientific as the "Top Ten Movie Presidents" list that came out the other day.

I can't remember his name, but the president in Independence Day of course, and Andrew Sheppard from "The American President," he was good. If it was just fictional presidents I'd add Bartlett from The West Wing. Other than that I'm somewhat fuzzy on film presidents.

I liked JFK in 13 Days, but he's not exactly fictional.

quote:
"What do you white guys have to be depressed about? You're white!"

It's funny, a commentator on CNN the other night talking about the election said something to the effect of "there isn't enough attention being paid to white men in this election," and she was almost laughed out of the room. But when they shut up and she explained her point about how the demographic studies generally only talk about women, blacks, latinos, and then extreme age groups, white men are rarely mentioned. Yes it's true that white men, compared to everyone else, have it fairly easy, but that's not everything. The fact that a joke like Rock's is probably considered both universally funny AND universally inoffensive I think says a lot about the lack of respect given to white men. And I know, or at least I bet, that reading this paragraph I sound ludicrous, but there's something to it, something that rarely gets mentioned because it's sacrilige in America to suggest that white men don't have it made just because they are white men.

Posted by akhockey (Member # 8394) on :

Lyrhawn, you are brilliant.

Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lyrhawn:
It's funny, a commentator on CNN the other night talking about the election said something to the effect of "there isn't enough attention being paid to white men in this election," and she was almost laughed out of the room. But when they shut up and she explained her point about how the demographic studies generally only talk about women, blacks, latinos, and then extreme age groups, white men are rarely mentioned. Yes it's true that white men, compared to everyone else, have it fairly easy, but that's not everything. The fact that a joke like Rock's is probably considered both universally funny AND universally inoffensive I think says a lot about the lack of respect given to white men. And I know, or at least I bet, that reading this paragraph I sound ludicrous, but there's something to it, something that rarely gets mentioned because it's sacrilige in America to suggest that white men don't have it made just because they are white men.

I'd tend to agree, with the obvious caveat that I'm a white guy. [Smile]

I remember my sister saying something dismissive about an advertised men's seminar- it's not like there are no problems specific to being male. Shorter life expectancy, higher chance of workplace death, a whole host of unhealthy societal expectations... Not to mention this ridiculous notion that being born white and male automatically makes you part of some secret all-powerful clique that makes the decisions for how society will be run.

Not to say that the opposite sex and other races don't have real and unique problems of their own.

quote:
Originally posted by steven:
Wow. The Danes. Who'da thunk it?

There's something [Big Grin]

in the state of Denmark...