[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Gross National Happiness

[Bill Totten]

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has created a new way to define
prosperity: by measuring actual well-being rather than consumption.

by Rajni Bakshi

Resurgence via Alternet (January 25 2005)


The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is an unlikely place for the birth
of an international trend. Yet Bhutan is emerging as a global leader in
the promotion of "Gross National Happiness" a concept it first embraced
three decades ago and which is now being fleshed out by a wide range of
professionals and agencies across the world.

The term Gross National Happiness (GNH) was coined by Bhutan's King
Jigme Singye Wangchuck, when he ascended the throne in 1972. It
signalled his commitment to building an economy that would serve
Bhutan's unique culture permeated by Buddhist spiritual values.

Today, the concept of GNH resonates with a wide range of initiatives,
across the world, to define prosperity in more holistic terms and to
measure actual wellbeing rather than consumption. By contrast the
conventional concept of Gross National Product (GNP) measures only the
sum total of material production and exchange in any country. Thus an
international conference on Gross National Happiness, hosted by the
Bhutan government in the capital city of Thimphu in 2004, attracted 82
eminent participants from twenty countries.

The evolving concept of GNH could well be the most significant
advancement in economic theory over the last 150 years, according to
Frank Dixon, a Harvard Business School graduate who is currently
managing director of research at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors.
Innovest is the largest international financial services firm catering
to ethical investment funds.

"GNH is an endeavor to greatly enhance the sophistication of human
systems by emulating the infinitely greater sophistication of nature",
says Dixon.

Just what would it mean for economic structures to emulate nature? Dixon
and others explain it as follows. At present individual companies and
entire countries are compelled to keep growing indefinitely. The only
parallel for this in the natural world is cancer cells, which by growing
exponentially destroy the host body and themselves.

Today it is widely acknowledged that the human economy cannot keep
growing at the cost of its habitat. Yet even after two decades of
expanding environmental regulation we are still losing the race to save
the planet. This is partly because production systems and consumption
patterns are out of sync with the carrying capacity of the planet. The
pressure for ever higher GNP is merely one manifestation of this.

The concept of GNH is seen as one of several ways in which these
imbalances might be rectified. The international gathering at Thimphu
reflected a consensus that Gross National Product would still need to be
measured and given due importance but in ways that are actually
conducive to GNH. So far there has been a tendency to treat GNH as
merely the well-intentioned slogan of a small country ruled by an
enlightened monarch. The obvious difficulties of defining or measuring
happiness have also helped to keep the concept of GNH on the outer
fringes of serious discourse.

However, as the conference in Thimphu showed, basic happiness can be
measured since it pertains to quality of nutrition, housing, education,
health care and community life. Thus, GNH may indeed be ready to come of
age. The concept is essential for anyone working on development, says
Mieko Nishimizu, an economist who was formerly the World Bank's vice
president for the South Asia region and attended the Thimphu conference.

Three major factors seem to be responsible for the expanding credibility
of GNH. One, there is wider awareness that GNP is a one-dimensional and
thus misleading measure. Two, a wide range of indices have been devised
which offer a more realistic assessment of even material prosperity.
Three, there is growing pressure for an infusion of moral and cultural
values into the core of economic policy.

The GNP was never intended to be a measure of actual well-being. It is
the artefact of a time when it was assumed that if there are more goods
in circulation, general welfare is ensured. As extensive documentation
has shown, this is not always the case. Moreover, attention has also
been drawn to dire side effects of the GNP-driven model of economic
growth in many societies, including the US with its multiple social
crises and rising sales of antidepressants.

Such critiques are not new. Back in 1968 Robert Kennedy lamented that
the GNP also grows because of the sales of rifles and knives and
"television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our
children ... (it) does not allow for the health of our children, the
quality of their education, or the joy of their play".

Since 1995, an Oakland-based think tank called Redefining Progress has
been annually assessing the American economy with an alternative
yardstick called the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which presents a
relatively grim picture of American society compared to the GDP (as GNP
is called in the US).

The GPI index gets closer to the reality of people's lives in the
following ways. It includes the household and volunteer economy which is
completely ignored by the GNP. It notes as a "loss" all money spent on
either preventing crime or repairing damage caused by it. Similarly all
money spent on water filters, air purification and other ways of coping
with environmental degradation is counted as a loss. Likewise money that
goes into circulation because of car crashes and divorces is noted as a
loss. The GPI also takes into account the extent to which the whole
population shares in increasing material abundance.

The GPI is just one among several endeavors to evolve new indicators
that measure actual conditions of human wellbeing. Some of the pioneers
in developing such indicators were present at the GNH conference in
Thimphu, including Frank Bracho of Venezuela, who was ambassador to
India in the early 1990s. Bracho pointed out that though countries as
diverse as Costa Rica, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and
Mongolia have established well-being indicators, the hegemony of the GNP
measure remains in place.

This is why Bhutan's insistence on the primacy of GNH over GNP inspires
people far beyond its borders. Bhutan's commitment to GNH has meant that
moral and ethical values are placed at the core of its economic
strategies for ensuring better food, housing and health for a population
of just over 710,000 people. GNH has allowed Bhutan to both expand its
network of roads and increase its forest cover. In most other developing
countries the arrival of roads is inevitably followed by deforestation.
This is not to suggest that all is well in the Kingdom of Bhutan or that
it is able to fully live up to its GNH commitment. Yet its achievements
are remarkable.

The wide range of people present at the conference was largely due to
the engagement of Sander Tideman, from Holland, who was once a banker
and is currently coordinator for the Spirit in Business network. Tideman
says that though Bhutan's move toward GNH has been more of a guiding
principle than an actual form of measure, its impact has been powerful.
For example, the government has restricted tourism in order to prevent
its eroding impacts on local cultural values. This has allowed temples
in Bhutan to remain places of study, worship and spiritual practice
rather than mere tourist attractions.

The declaration adopted by participants at the Thimphu conference said
that the facilitation of GNH should be accompanied by "the development
of indicators that address human physical and emotional well-being. They
must be capable of use for self-evaluation, so that individuals and
groups may gauge their progress in the attainment of happiness. In
addition, indicators should facilitate full accountability, good
governance, and socially constructive business practices, both in
day-to-day life and in long-range policies and activities."
_____

Rajni Bakshi is a journalist based in Mumbai.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/21083


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