O Happy Middle East: Where Happiness Can be Confusing. What About Texas and Costa Rica?
This does make sense: Costa Rica has no army.
This also must come as a shock to such people as Texans, Saudis, Afghans, and Yemenis.
Saudi Arabia has an army, a National Guard, a Police Force, Security Agencies, as well as a robust heavily-bearded morality police, all commanded by some royal prince or another. Iran has its own various squads, including the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.
I was told that Iranians and Saudis (and some others of my fellow Gulfies) have a leg up on the path to paradise because of all that.
" July 2008:“LONDON: Saudis are the happiest people of all Arabs and rank 26th among the happiest people in the world, according to a study released recently by the World Values Survey, a global network of social scientists based at the University of Michigan….
“The yardstick of happiness according to the study was the contentment of a people with their living standard. The participants were asked questions such as if they were very happy, happy or not at all happy, Asharq Al-Awsat (Saudi) reported yesterday. The study ranked the Danes first among the people from 97 countries while Zimbabwe came at the bottom. The United States got 16th position and Guatemala came 17th…….
“Among the Arab countries that figured in the list, Jordan came 57th, Morocco 68th, Algeria 72nd and Egypt 74th……..”
I can’t believe that Algerians are happier than Egyptians; they are such morose people. But then; they have not had to stare at the photos of Mr. Husni Mubarak for 28 years, nor read his pearls of wisdom on the front pages every day, also for 28 years. Well, when the dour and largely unpleasant Jordanians beat the Egyptians, you know that something is seriously wrong in the Nile Delta.
As for the Saudis being the happiest people in the Middle East, I have strong doubts, serious doubts about it, but then again, it was Voltaire, not me, who said:
&nb
Or maybe the majority of the sample used in the poll were royal princes and their retainers. Or maybe they thought the security agents were doing the poll. A plethora of possibilities here....
April 2008:“Bahrain residents were among the happiest people in the region, according to a new online survey released yesterday. They ranked fourth among residents of 11 countries in the region, behind Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar respectively.The UAE-based research firm Maktoob Research announced that overall, 49 per cent of the people in the region are “happy”…..
“Manama was said to be the “happiest” city in Bahrain, followed by Muharraq……”
"Oh, Manama, mana mana mana, doo doo doo…." (said the moppet on Sesame Street).
That explains it all, Manama where the right Bahrainis live. Not the disgruntled others who protest and complain because the oligarchy refuses to let them fill job vacancies, instead importing foreign Arabs of the ‘right sect’ to fill security services and armed forces vacancies.
” Fox 5 Chicago aired a startling report about scientists claiming that evolution is causing women to become more beautiful. Apparently, researchers found that beautiful women are reproducing at a higher rate and that they have a higher proportion of girls to boys.Men, however, are staying the same, according to the researchers…..”
I see no correlation between this item and the preceding two (above), if this was true, then the first two items would be somewhat different…no? I hope I am not confusing you.
Cheers
mhg
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