Countries are quite rightly concerned with their Gross Domestic Product, however have you heard of Gross National Happiness (GNH)? When in 1972 Jigme Singye Wangchuck was crowned king of the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan he opened his country up to modernisation. He used this unique phrase when he spoke of his commitment to building their economy without compromising their unique culture based on Buddhist values. The Bhutan government suggests that development takes place when material and spiritual development occur simultaneously complimenting and reinforcing each other.
Their Centre for Bhutan Studies developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population’s general level of well-being. Bhutan’s GNH serves as a unifying vision for the country’s five-yearly planning processes as well as all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans for the country. All proposed Bhutan policies must pass a GNH review based on a GNH impact statement similar to our Environmental Impact Assessments required in all development planning.
GNH has four pillars which are; the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment and the establishment of good governance. Clearly, these principles are universal and not restricted to the Buddhist or a particular philosophy.
Perhaps we need to consider our traditional systems and indicators such as Gross Domestic Product with out-of-the-box thinking and ideas like Gross National Happiness. In so doing we may well be killing two birds with one stone when developing not only our country and our economy but also our people and their well being.
In an attempt to make you happier and provide you more information and an additional channel of communication, please visit and subscribe to my new blog (http://mannydefreitas.blogspot.com).
As we reach the end of 2011, I wish you and yours a very happy 2012.
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