A few years ago, Suzanne visited Bhutan, drawn to a country that talks more about Gross National Happiness, GNH, than Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
Magda Fahsi at Mint Press News recently interviewed Bhutan’s former Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y Thinley and asked whether Bhutan ran into difficulties talking with other countries about development, given that its index is GNH and theirs is GDP.
He answered, “We have had no difficulties at all. We know our development partner countries in particular are interested in Bhutan’s growth process as measured through the yardstick of GDP; and we have not rejected GDP.
“GNH does not exclude GDP, but confines it to the role that it is supposed to play as originally conceived by Simon Kuznets, the person who established the measure after the Great Depression. Kuznets said that it was nothing but a measure of the goods and services produced by a particular place, at a particular time and exchanged in the market. He made it very clear to Congress that it was not a measure of development, not a measure of societal well-being. And in fact, he was very sad to see that his GDP was being misused, because, as you know, many countries now associate GDP with well-being. And this is where the mistake is.
“So Bhutan uses GDP as well, but only to indicate our material or economic progress; we give equal importance to other things like environmental conservation, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation and good governance; these are further separated into nine dimensions that enable true societal well-being. …
“Happiness is a state of being that one achieves when one is able to balance the needs of the body with the needs of the mind, when the material and the emotional, psychological needs are being met, within a stable, peaceful and secure environment.”
Photo: AP /Mustafa Quraishi
Bhutan’s former Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y Thinley, puts on his shoes after paying tribute at Mahatma Gandhi memorial in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, July 16, 2008.
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