World's Happiest Nations

[RYP]

CR and DR are the top "happy Planet" spots....So the lesson is clear....make sure whitey kills all the indigs and sell whats left into prostitution and restaurant jobs.

Costa Rica tops list of 'happiest' nations

* Costa Rica beats out Dominican Republic as "happiest" place in world
* Independent British group claims Costa Ricans have world's highest life satisfaction
* Central American nation also praised for its environmental efforts

(CNN) -- Forget Disneyland! Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to an independent research group in Britain with the goal of building a new economy, "centered on people and the environment."

In a report released Saturday, the group ranks nations using the "Happy Planet Index," which seeks countries with the most content people.

In addition to happiness, the index by the New Economics Foundation considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries.

"Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada)," the organization said in a statement.

They "also have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ... consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources."

The Central American country, tucked between Nicaragua and Panama, touts its lush rain forests and pristine beaches. Its president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for trying to help end civil wars in several Central American countries.

This year's survey, which looked at 143 countries, featured Latin American nations in nine of the Top 10 spots.

The runner-up was the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam.

Most developed nations lagged in the study.

While Britain ranked 74th, the United States snagged the 114th spot, because of its hefty consumption and massive ecological footprint.

The United States was greener and happier 20 years ago than it is today, the report said.

Other populous nations, such as China and India, had a lower index brought on by their vigorous pursuit of growth-based models, the survey suggested.

"As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production, we desperately need a new compass to guide us," said Nic Marks, founder of the foundation's center for well-being.

Marks urged nations to make a collective global change before "our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible climate change."

The report, which was first conducted in 2006, covers 99 percent of the world population, the statement said.

[Caliban]

So all the people with the money move to the happiest places and almost immediately turn them into the unhappiest places, primarily because they convert them into mini versions of the places they left.

[Heretic]

"make sure whitey kills all the indigs and sell whats left into prostitution and restaurant jobs."

Yeah, this obviously worked well in Vietnam, Jamaica, etc.! :-)

My guess is that this didn't have much to do with real happiness, but rather how people respond to surveys. Third world people are often smiling and say that they are happy, even when they live in an outhouse. Western people, who might have three cars and a big house, are going to be cynical and bitch about their lives.

[Heretic]

So all the people with the money move to the happiest places and almost immediately turn them into the unhappiest places, primarily because they convert them into mini versions of the places they left.

There are guys on this forum who will say the opposite; that the people without money move to the happiest places and almost immediately turn them into the unhappiest place, primarily because they convert them into mini version of the place they left. It just goes to show you how subjective life is.

[coldharvest]

There are guys on this forum who will say the opposite; that the people without money move to the happiest places and almost immediately turn them into the unhappiest place, primarily because they convert them into mini version of the place they left

Wasn't the War on Poverty supposed to have killed them off?

It just goes to show you how subjective life is

that's real fuckin' deep Coach.

[Heretic]

Speaking of deep, it is not advisable to partake in Malawi prostitutes, from what I hear. Not only are most of them ridden with multiple nasty diseases, but apparently there is not much sensation because the local vaginas are apparently bigger and/or deeper than the average vaginas of the region (Zambian, Mozambiquan, etc). I realize that this is somewhat off-topic, but you sort of prompted me in a manner of speaking.

[Kurt]

Speaking of deep, it is not advisable to partake in Malawi prostitutes, from what I hear. Not only are most of them ridden with multiple nasty diseases, but apparently there is not much sensation because the local vaginas are apparently bigger and/or deeper than the average vaginas of the region (Zambian, Mozambiquan, etc). I realize that this is somewhat off-topic, but you sort of prompted me in a manner of speaking.

Hmmmm....

Perhaps the bet I made with my friends last night of: "I bet you I can get Madonna to adopt my child" will not be as enjoyable as I expected it to be.

[Penta]

Speaking of deep, it is not advisable to partake in Malawi prostitutes, from what I hear. Not only are most of them ridden with multiple nasty diseases, but apparently there is not much sensation because the local vaginas are apparently bigger and/or deeper than the average vaginas of the region (Zambian, Mozambiquan, etc). I realize that this is somewhat off-topic, but you sort of prompted me in a manner of speaking.

Yes, it was off topic, and completely uncalled for. You can try to blame cold, if you must.

[friendlyskies]

I'm not at all surprised.

[Greggy_N]

costa rica was definatley a happy place 4 me circa 2004

[coldharvest]

Speaking of deep, it is not advisable to partake in Malawi prostitutes, from what I hear. Not only are most of them ridden with multiple nasty diseases, but apparently there is not much sensation because the local vaginas are apparently bigger and/or deeper than the average vaginas of the region (Zambian, Mozambiquan, etc). I realize that this is somewhat off-topic, but you sort of prompted me in a manner of speaking.

Yes, it was off topic, and completely uncalled for. You can try to blame cold, if you must.

I am totally not responsible for Malawian hookers having echo chambers.

[Penta]

You can try to blame cold, if you must.

I am totally not responsible for Malawian hookers having echo chambers.

Yes, unfortunate way of putting it. Sorry. I blame trying to write the post in the changeover time between games. And I missed the first 2 points. ;)

[friendlyskies]

costa rica was definatley a happy place 4 me circa 2004

Well, come on back! God knows you're not going to be vacationing in fucking scary, dangerous Honduras this year, right? Come to Costa Rica instead, where we may have socialist health care and an imperfect democracy featuring a president who just changed the constitution to allow a second term. But it's safe, stable, and happy, with nationwide sale on everything from whitewater rafting tours and hotels in every budget, to beachfront condominiums, lots are going fast so buy yours now! Pura vida, bitches.

[nowonmai]

Apropos of fuck all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jkbjPuhEqI&feature=related

[Heretic]

Speaking of deep, it is not advisable to partake in Malawi prostitutes, from what I hear. Not only are most of them ridden with multiple nasty diseases, but apparently there is not much sensation because the local vaginas are apparently bigger and/or deeper than the average vaginas of the region (Zambian, Mozambiquan, etc). I realize that this is somewhat off-topic, but you sort of prompted me in a manner of speaking.

Yes, it was off topic, and completely uncalled for.

I apologize profusely for the completely off topic and uncalled for post. In an attempt to make reparations for my act, I shall write something that is on topic and called for. It won't quite be 40 acres and a mule, but perhaps close.

Anyway, according to the OP, Latin America is one of the happiest places on Earth, having dominated with nine out of the top ten places. Anyway, I used to live there when I was a kid, and during a college break I flew to the Yucatan and rented a freshly manufactored 1996 Volkswagon Bug to see how things had changed.

I drove it all over Mexico (before later backpacking down into Belize, Guatemala, etc) and I found it to be a very happy place. Once, I was driving through Merida and I hit one of the eight inch concrete curbs in that city, which blew my tire into pieces. I got out of the car, wondering what the fuck I was going to do, when suddenly loads of Mexicans came out of the nearby buildings. It wasn't the best district in town, so I was not 100% relaxed, but they all came with smiles and proceeded to prop my car up with a wooden stool (having determined that the jack in the car was broken and incomplete). A bus came by and they flagged it down and borrowed a wrench, with which they took off the lugs and replaced the tire with the spare. Then, one of the guys invited me into his "house", which was typical Merida style, with rooms that only had three walls (all rooms opened into the interior courtyards, which was full of rubbish. It was the middle of the morning on a work day, and most of the family was sleeping two or three to the sisil hammocks that they favor over beds. There was a grandfather who was drunk off his ass, and he kept trying to grab my balls, no unlike the Japanese who frequently did the same to me a few years later. It must have been that common high Asian blood that the Mexicans and Japaneseboth have that cause them to grab scrotums.

At any rate, if I had blown a tire out in the States, people would have just run me over. The Mexicans were extremely friendly and apparently happy, despite their relatively shitty living conditions. I suppose Latin America is not as hard to live in as part of Africa and Asia, but nonetheless, it certainly isn't as comfortable as western nations in Europe and North America (or Japan for that matter). So why are they are so fucking happy all the time?

I still have no idea. But that drunk grandfather didn't even mind when I later took his niece home with me. Now, that was one happy motherfucker!