Taking Happiness Seriously
Choki has presented and submitted proposals to the government of the Azores since 2015 inspired by GNH or Gross National Happiness from Bhutan.
In a world beset by collapsing financial systems, inequity, and environmental destruction, GNH´s explicit purpose is to create conditions for citizens to pursue and experience true happiness, placing the natural world, culture, and community at the heart of public policy.
As GDP shows to be an obsolete way to measure progress in the modern world, GNH is an uplifting model that would support the preservation of the staggering natural beauty of the Azores if adapted. The island of Flores for example, has the potential to pursue an almost mythical status of a real-life utopia in western society.
“The current national accounting system treats the earth as a business in liquidation”
Herman Daly, Senior Economist World Bank
Choki presents a methodical and practical pursuit of the concept of happiness adapted to the needs of the island of Flores, and projects can be replicated anywhere where people care about their future generations.
GNH basic principles that contribute to a persons happiness include:
Living standards, health, education, good governance, ecological diversity, time use, psychological wellbeing, cultural diversity, and community vitality.
Now learn the differences between Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Happiness.
Gross Domestic Product
“Our Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
Robert F. Kennedy, speech at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968
VS.
Gross National Happiness
Spirituality and compassion integrated with governance
To learn more about GNH visit www.grossnationalhappiness.com