Gasps of incredulity must have greeted the news that Nigeria topped the poll in the recent "Survey of Hope and Despair".It was followed by Vietnam,Brazil, Ghana, China and Kosovo, none of which places seems to offer exactly an easy life.In all of these there exists real hardship and the only reliable form of lifetime support comes, if at all, from the family. Are the poor countries therefore inherantly happier than the rich ones because of the more resilient and "make the best of it" attitudes of their citizens?
Bottom of the poll as the most miserable came France,Iceland,Romania,Serbia and the UK, all of which offer through their social security systems the possibility of a fairly easy life for those unable or unwilling to work. They also give pretty much a cradle to grave guarantee that you won't actually starve. France and the UK provide a lot more than that , together with regulations on minimum wages, health and safety, maximum working hours (and therefore income potential especially for the unskilled) and yet there we are bumping along on the bottom of the misery league.
The only other conspicuous factor is climate. The five most miserable all have cold winter climates.Four of the happiest group are warm year round.
Is the reality therefore that it is better to be poor in a warm country than rich in a cold one and that most of the welfare money poured into the cold ones makes little difference to the happiness of its citizens? Maybe much of that money, deflected away from the overall business of making these miserabalist countries more prosperous, is impoverishing them by removing the impetus to everyone to get up and make the most of life or at least enjoy it? Who's going to dare to fight an election on that platform? One for the "Get a Grip Party"? Meanwhile the optimistic, cheerful and amazingly humourous (unless upset or coming second best in a business deal) Nigerians are seemingly having a ball.Good luck to them,- and congratulations.
