They say you cannot buy happiness — and it is something Bhutan is finding out the hard way.
The tiny, mostly Buddhist Himalayan kingdom won a world voice for adopting a happiness index to measure its economy. But its prime minister says it promptly forgot its own lesson, and let a sudden rush of prosperity go to its head.
“Wealth creates increased desire,” said Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley. “There are families with four or five cars. There are luxury vehicles being imported that can hardly drive on our roads and are made for far better roads than we have here.”
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
A country that was closed to foreigners until 1974, and only recently opened up to the forces of globalization, lacked the tools to cope with newly found economic growth and the wealth it brought.
The government has cut expenditure and is considering raising taxes on imported vehicles. Youth unemployment is over nine percent and people are drifting away from the countryside, and traditional values, to the towns.
Worst of all, Bhutan’s most recent Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, in 2010, found only 41 percent qualified as “happy.”
(Reuters)
俗話說金錢難買幸福,而不丹現正痛苦地學到這個教訓。
這個坐落在喜馬拉雅山區、居民多為佛教徒的蕞爾小國,因為採取幸福指數來衡量經濟發展,在世界取得發聲權。但不丹總理表示,不丹很快就忘記了自己的訓誡,讓突如其來的經濟發展沖昏了頭。
「財富帶來慾望的增加,」總理吉格梅‧廷里說。「有些家庭現在有四、五輛車。但這些進口豪華轎車卻很難在我們國家的道路上行駛,因為它們是為了路況更好的道路所製造。」
不丹遲至一九七四年才開放外國人入境,最近才向全球化勢力開放,卻缺乏因應經濟迅速成長及其所衍生財富的工具。
政府已開始刪減支出,並考慮提高進口車輛關稅。年輕人失業率已超過百分之九,民眾正紛紛遠離鄉村與傳統價值,湧向都市。
更糟的是,不丹最近一年,也就是二○一○年的國民幸福指數(GNH)發現,只有百分之四十一的國民夠格稱為「幸福」。
(路透/翻譯:國際新聞中心)
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