Gross National Happiness

Prime Minister Jigme Thinley accepts that happiness has to be achieved by each person individually. but reckons government can help create the right environment for individuals to achieve happiness.

Under last year's revised Constitution, policies must be judged not only by their potential economic benefit but by the happiness they produce.

This is no wishy-washy aspiration. Bhutan has evolved a model for measuring happiness. This is how it works:

First there have to be four pillars for happiness: the economy, the culture, the environment and good governance.

Second there have to nine domains: psychological well-being; ecology; health; education; culture; living standards; time use; community vitality and good governance. Each of these is given a weighted value.

Third there are the 72 indicators which measure the state of progress of the nine domains.

For instance the indicators for the domain of psychological well-being are: frequency of prayer and meditation, feelings of selfishness, jealousy, calm, compassion, generosity, frustration and suicidal thought.

Every couple of years, the indicators are assessed via a nationwide questionnaire.

"You see what a complete dedication to economic development ends up in," says Bhutan's Secretary for Information and Communications, Kinley Dorji, "industrialised societies have decided now that GNP is a broken promise."

America, of course, is probably the only other country in the world to bestow a Constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness.

But you don't hear many US politicians explaining their strategy for facilitating its achievement. On the other hand you often hear US politicians talk about the American Dream.

However, when Americans get specific about their Dream, it appears more to be about accumulating a ton of dough than anything much to do with happiness.

Where the US leads, the UK is sure to follow. So c'mon guys, let's go for GNH.