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Not As Happy As You’d Think
According to a new survey, Finland is the happiest country in the world. As a Finn, I’m not 100 percent sold on the idea.
After nearly 10 years in Argentina, I’m used to locals asking me what it was that prompted me to move from the most perfect of countries, my native Finland, only to come here to South America to live amid constant economic problems, rampant corruption, and never-ending political instability.
Argentinians often view my country as a Narnia-like magical land where everyone is happy and poverty and inequality don’t exist. They also view their own country in extremely pessimistic terms. And why shouldn’t they? Given the economic turmoils (in the past year the Argentine peso lost half its value, inflation has been deep in the double digits for the past decade and poverty is soaring), it’s sometimes hard even for me to keep faith in my life decisions.
Lately, I’ve been hearing these comments even more often than usual, due to news arriving from Finland that seems to place the country at the top of yet another international ranking: the World Happiness Report put the country in the first place, for the second consecutive year. It seems I’ve made all the wrong decisions if what I want is a happy life.
Online, Finnish people have answered to this piece of news with humor, posting countless memes that show the…
