[Buddha-l] Re: Bhutan & Whose happiness?

[Wong Weng Fai]

>>However, I'm more interested in something else going on in Bhutan. The 
>>Bhutanese government is employing a new measurement to replace (or
>>supplement)
>>the ubiquitous Gross National Product that every other nation uses: 
>>Gross 
>>National Happiness. See: http://tinyurl.com/2t5t74
>
>This is all well, but some fundamental problems with the Bhutanese
>government remain.
>At the risk of sounding repetitive, once again, I wish to point out
>something that the Red Cross, the UN, Human Rights Watch and others have
>already pointed out.
>There are over 100000 Hindu Bhutanese presently living in refugee camps
>in Nepal because of new citizenship and immigration laws implemented in
>Bhutan by the Buddhist government.

Since these people are not citizens of Bhutan, their happiness or misery 
cannot be included in the computation of GNH of Bhutan. On the other hand, 
one cannot rule out that their expulsion led to an increase of the GNH of 
Bhutan. Just as "securing our border" (a.k.a. "kick out the Mexicans") 
may well lead to the increase of GNH of the U.S. - or at least Lou Dobbs.

"There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics." - 
variously attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, Alfred Marshall, Mark Twain and 
many others.

*DUCK!*

W.F. Wong