From Finland down to Sri Lanka!

For the fifth year in a row, Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings, based largely on the life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll.

The Nordic country and its neighbours Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings; healthy life Expectancy, GDP per capita. social support in times of trouble, low corruption and high social trust, generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life decisions. Denmark comes in at No.2 in this year’s ranking, followed by Iceland at No.3. Sweden and Norway are seventh and eighth, respectively.

Sadly, we Sri Lankans are among the unhappiest people in the world; out of 149 countries surveyed,we finished 129 over a three-year period. To console ourselves, there were a few countries below us, and they include Yemen, Haiti, India and 16 African nations. Afghanistan is placed last in the list occupying the 149th position. There is no doubt that if not for the dirty politics and stinking corruption, we would have finished very much higher than 129th out of 149 countries. For sure, we cannot compete with the Nordic countries which even the super powers could not do, but definitely we would have done far better, if not for the reasons I mentioned earlier. With the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, what can people think of, other than their survival. May God bless Sri Lanka!

S. H. MOULANA