Happiness Is a Warm Island

From the desk of Moye Ishimoto:

Apparently the Happiest Place On Earth isn’t Anaheim, or even Orlando, but the small South Pacific islands of Vanuatu. According to the New Economics Foundation, they have the highest combination of life satisfaction, life expectancy, and “environmental footprint” (whatever that means). Oh, and don’t forget Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica, and Panama. We, on the other hand, rank a lowly 150.

Wait, let’s think about this.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica (is that the Dominican Republic? Forgive me, I’m an ignorant American), and Panama is that really annoying Feed The Children infomercial where that creepy white guy holds that sad-looking girl with the dirty face, eating a bowl of mushy rice. I’m sure that’s really a commercial for children in India, but the point is, WHY ARE THEY SO HAPPY IF THEY ARE SO POOR?

I guess money really doesn’t buy you happiness. According to this, all four of those countries rank way below the US, which tops the chart at #7. This is where I launch into some sort of rant about how people don’t really realize how nice their life is and that we should really be happy with everything that we have and isn’t America great? But then I start thinking about how much my own life sucks in little ways and even if we’re #7, I certainly don’t see any of it, and according to Al Gore, our “environmental footprint” is just bringing on the Apocalypse and we’re all going to die.

And the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Vanuatu is Survivor. Does anyone else find that ironic?

– Moye Ishimoto