Happy

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Happy

A report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has ranked Vanuatu as the happiest country in the world. The NEF's 'Happy Planet Index' gave the Pacific archipelago its number-one ranking based on measurements of 'human well-being and environmental impact'. Britain, according to the league table, is not a very happy place to live, languishing as it does in a lowly 108th place (just behind Libya). Unhappy Zimbabwe, meanwhile, props up the table in last position.

The table ranks Iceland as one of Europe's happiest countries so perhaps it is appropriate that 'happy' (first noted in English in the 14th century) should derive ultimately from the Norse word happ, which means 'good luck'. 'Happiness', the word at least, was first recorded in 1530, while the 17th century provided us with two phrases still used to this day: 'happy-go-lucky' and 'happy as a clam', the latter being a shortened version of the more explanatory 'happy as a clam in the mud at high tide'. One of the least happy periods of history, World War II, supplied English with 'trigger-happy' and 'bomb-happy', two ironic descriptions of someone experiencing battle fatigue. The post-war era, however, was a much happier time, especially for drinkers. The 'happy hour' (first recorded in 1961) kept several generations of imbibers refreshed in the early evening, although a recent voluntary ban by many British pubs might have consigned it to the history books.

Happiness is certainly on the political agenda at the moment. David Cameron has said that 'GWB' ('general well-being') is a more important index than GDP, while the organization behind the Happy Planet Index evidently believes that 'money can't buy you happiness'. Money might just have something to do with the happiness of Vanuatu, however, as the island paradise is one of the few countries where there is no income tax.