Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW Vol. 5 Num 598 Thu. February 02, 2006       Letters to Editor Happiest nation in the world Zafar Hadi California, USA My letter is a reflection in the wake of a recent report by London School of Economics that found Bangladeshis as the happiest people on Earth. Although it is quite unimaginable to measure something intangible like "Happiness", however economists in LSE tried to do so by measuring a level of satisfaction related to ability of personal spending. I think the term "Happiness" has more comprehensive meaning than defined by the economists at LSE. I should rather call Bangladeshis are the most self -content people in the world. Although self-contentment is a major factor in bringing about happiness in one's life, however that is not the only factor leading towards happiness. A self-content person may not be happy due to myriad of external socio-economic factors and some of them even may not be in his or her control. I have seen some of my deshi friends being quite elated over this notion of "the most happiest nation" thing. But I really don't comprehend how in a country- where peoples' civil liberties are frequently being hijacked, corruption is rampant in almost all strata of society and wealth is accumulated by a few (mostly by exploitation of poor and common mass)- people are really happy. Claiming oneself "happy" amid all these odds and disparities does not reflect anything but either ignorance or self-denial. This is indeed a wrong signal to the others if we be complacent with what we have and do not struggle to change our condition (for better). I don't want to portray myself as a pessimistic, rather I warn myself and my other fellow countrymen not to be too much complacent with this very paradoxical notion of " Happiest Nation in the World".