每日跟讀#565: In Bhutan, Happiness Index as Gauge for Social Ills

As a downpour settled into a thick fog outside, Dasho Karma Ura let his eyes flicker at the ceiling of a wood-paneled conference room and began expounding on the nature of happiness.

“People feel happy when they see something ethical,” he said. “When you think you have done something right and brave and courageous, when you can constantly recharge yourself as a meaningful actor.”

屋外的傾盆大雨轉為濃霧，達修．卡瑪．烏拉向鑲了木板的會議室的天花板瞥了一眼，開始闡述幸福的本質。

他說：「當人們看到某件合乎道德的事時，幸福感油然而生。還有當你認為你做對了某件事，而且勇敢和勇氣可嘉時，當你可以持續不斷自我充實，成為有意義的行動者時。」

“And lastly,” he added, thumbing Buddhist prayer beads, “something which makes you pause and think, ‘Ah, this is beautiful. Beautiful, meaningful, ethical.'”

Ura, 55, is perhaps one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, at least as seen through the lens of development economics. It has been something of a preoccupation for more than two decades as he has developed and fine-tuned Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator, a supplementary, sometimes alternative, yardstick to the conventional measure of development, gross domestic product.

他撥著佛教念珠，接著說：「最後，某件事讓你停下來想，喔，好美。美麗、有意義、合乎道德。」

55歲的烏拉也許是世上最頂尖的幸福問題專家之一，至少從發展經濟學的眼光來看是如此。20多年來他全心投入，致力發展並仔細修訂不丹的國民幸福總值指數，作為傳統上用來測量發展的國內生產毛額指數的補充或替代標準。

As the president of the Center for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, Ura has spent much of his time asking Bhutanese questions about interactions with neighbors, quality of sleep and physical vigor in an attempt to understand and measure subjective well-being. Over the years, he has watched the idea catch on far beyond Bhutan, a remote kingdom in the Himalayas.

When Denmark repeatedly came in first on the World Happiness Report, which looks at the science of measuring quality of life, more people became aware of both the report, and the concept behind it.

身為「不丹研究與幸福指數研究中心」主席，他花費許多時間來問不丹國民一些問題，包括與鄰居的互動，睡眠品質，以及體力，試圖了解和測量他們的主觀幸福感。多年來，他觀察到這個想法已在不丹這個喜馬拉雅山區偏遠王國之外流行起來。

隨著丹麥一再在世界幸福報告上名列第一，也讓更多人注意到這項報告和它所秉持的觀念。這項報告檢視測量生活品質的科學。

As nations struggle with what Ura called more “guns, bullets and bombs” than at any other time in history, he said it was imperative that many more countries devise indicators that look beyond economics.

“We have to find new ways of organizing our drives and energies toward peace and harmony,” he said. “We have to sincerely find a way out of it, out of this mutual insecurity. Because you have more guns, I have to have a little more guns. The long-term collapse is facing us.”

當各國努力與烏拉所謂多過既往任何時代的「槍、子彈和炸彈」奮戰時，他說，勢必會有更多國家設計出放眼於經濟之外的指數。

他說：「我們必須找出新方法來組織我們邁向和平與和諧的動力與精力。我們必須真誠的找出擺脫之道，擺脫這種相互不安全感。因為你的槍比較多，所以我必須比你更多一些。我們面臨長期的崩潰。」

While Gross National Happiness has become a political tool around election time, Ura believes the index has drawn greater attention to social problems. And the results appear to be positive, he said.

In 2015, his staff members released a study that showed 91.2 percent of Bhutanese reporting that they were narrowly, extensively or deeply happy, with a 1.8 percent increase in aggregate happiness between 2010 and 2015.

Those who were educated and lived in urban areas reported higher levels of contentment than their rural counterparts. Men reported feeling happier than women.

雖然國民幸福總值指數在選舉期間變成了政治工具，但烏拉認為這個指數讓人們更加注意社會問題。他說，結果顯然是正面的。

在2015年，他的屬下公布了一項研究結果，顯示有91.2%的不丹人表示他們略感幸福、很幸福和非常幸福，比2010年到2015年間的總體幸福增加1.8個百分比。

受過教育和住在都會區的人的滿意度比住在鄉村的人高。男人比女人感到更幸福

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/310478/web/