Morose Moldova

I read this article on democracy, (Will Democracy Make You Happy?) that highlights Moldova as being a perfect example of how democracy doesn't necessarily indicate happiness for a population.

Walk around Moldova, it says, and all you see is long faces and morose people. Apparently we're very low on the happiness index, by free admission of the people living here.

Meaning that, when people are asked, "on a scale of 1-10, how happy are you?" people didn't rate themselves as highly as people in, say, Botswana.

This, the article trumpets, is an example of how democracy isn't all its cracked up to be! Moldovans are all free to vote and all, and they're all depressed!

What a load of crap.

Ok, yea, this is a pretty impoverished country in many ways, particularly compared to say, western Europe, but not in the least compared to say, the afore-mentioned Botswana. People here do *believe* that they are "pauperizat" - impoverished, which is important to note.

However...

All in all, I think this country is relatively happy. But people are *seriously* afraid of jinxing any happiness they might have.

When baby animals are born, it's tradition to spit on them because, basically, they're too damn cute, and if they're fawned over too much, it's like.... pride, vanity, and it'll cause sickness of death... basically, God will see the pride and smite it. The spitting thing applies to other aspects as well, like new houses, human babies, etc.

It's not a good thing to compliment things too much, because it could all go away in a second.

And if a person if forced to analyze their happiness in this country, particularly to compare it to other countries, of course they're going to think it's bad. Because what are they going to compare it to?

Teachers here make $18 per month. Seriously. This doesn't translate very well in the housing market. Which is why so many families are broken up here.... because half of the parents are working in different countries to send money home to their families.... this country has the largest remittance economy in the world.

Take that Mexico.

What good is a self-reported happiness index if people have different ways of evaluating happiness? Or if their comparing it to different things?