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The Happiness Patrol
There is an important institution in Rotterdam in the Netherlands which is almost unknown but contented. It is the World Database of Happiness (WDH).
The WDH collects information about what makes people happy and why. Their research conducted over many years is extensive. For example: Married extrovert optimists are happier than single pessimistic introverts. Bankers are generally unhappy.
Men and women who are active sexually and with a short journey to work rank near the top of the league table.
An American journalist, Eric Weiner, who works as a reporter for National Public Radio, has used the findings of the WDH to discover where folk are most content for his new book 'The Geography of Bliss'.
In Switzerland he found much happiness. A man in Geneva said: "Have you seen our toilets. They are very clean".
In Bangkok in Thailand the answer from a merchant was: We are "Too busy being happy to think about happiness".
In London there is a man in a pub who smiles and says: "We don't do happiness". In Reykiavik in Iceland a female acquaintance in a bar admitted she was happy while sampling the local aquavit (a spirit made from grain and flavoured with caraway seeds) and eating 'Hakarl' (rotten shark) an Islandic speciality.
Perhaps the last word should be from General Charles de Gaulle. When asked the question "Are you happy ?" he replied, "What a stupid thing to ask".
