Living in a world of bliss

On January 4, one of this newspaper's headlines screamed Maltese Among Happiest In The World. The report was accompanied by a picture of a few dozen beaming youths, some of whom were either brandishing beer bottles or making the V sign and one of whom was holding a "No Parking" traffic sign pinched from a nearby garage. For such a striking headline, I found it strange that the report was buried in page 40.

Herman Grech reported that, according to the World Database of Happiness, Malta was in the blissful company of Denmark and Switzerland in scoring eight out of 10 on the happy barometer developed by Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. That appeared to be no mean feat, given that Prof. Veenhoven had to delve through more than 8,000 findings from 120 countries.

For once, we were not out in the cold but right in it. Because one of the strange results of this survey was that there seemed to be a close positive correlation between cold climates and happiness. According to Prof. Veenhoven, one explanation for this finding is that persons in cold climates seem to work together more than ones in warmer climates. It is perhaps symptomatic that, with this island of contradictions, our happiness seems to be positively, though abnormally, correlated to our warm climate while working together is not exactly a trait of Maltese society.

What are we happy about? Sure, we live in a free country, we have a healthy democratic tradition, we have a system of justice that, despite its shortcomings, is generally perceived to deliver more or less satisfactory results. For all that, we should be grateful, I suppose.

According to Prof. Veenhoven, income equality and generous social security do not appear to be required for a happy and long life. Still, it does not hurt that our income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient (from a ratio of 0 signifying perfect equality to a ratio of 100 signifying complete inequality), is 30.4 compared to the EU15's 31, though Denmark manages to be more equal at 25 while Switzerland is slightly more unequal at 35.

Another way of determining income equality is to look at the distribution of income, that is the ratio between the top one-fifth earners and the bottom one-fifth earners. Here again, our ratio is 4.5 to the EU15's 5.4, with Denmark at 3.6 and Switzerland at 5.8. I would venture to say that Denmark's and Malta's better ratios are a legacy of our socialist governments and their policy of progressive taxation.

Again, poverty does not necessarily induce unhappiness. Both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II never featured in Forbes' 100 wealthiest people on earth but they exuded happiness and made millions of people share in it. Millions more in Ghana, Honduras and Guatemala seem to be happy, even though their income per head is one-30th, one-10th, and one-sixth respectively of Malta's. Thank God we as a nation seem to have achieved a more just society. Our risk of poverty ratio is 14.9 to the EU15's 18, though Denmark scores a low nine.

Even though Prof. Veenhoven says that one of the main qualities seen as leading to a good life is economic affluence, though our income is substantially below the EU average, we seem to be happy with our lot. According to the NSO's 2003 Lifestyle Survey, our life satisfaction level on a scale of one (very satisfied) to five (very dissatisfied), is 2.1. Fully 93 per cent seem to be very satisfied, satisfied or fairly satisfied with what life is meting them out, though those who have a very bad family standard of living rate, their satisfaction at 3.7.

As I said, while I am not surprised by Prof. Veenhoven's claim that working together could explain one of the traits of a happy people, I am rather reluctant to accept this as a good reason for our relative happiness. Were we able to work so closely together, we would not have the Governor of the Central Bank express regret that the social partners have not reached agreement on a social pact. Michael Bonello attributed this inability to work together to an insufficient understanding of global economic realities and of the threat they represent to Malta's economy and employment levels.

One would imagine that, with the writing on the wall having been so manifest for the last six years at least, the Maltese people and their leaders would have been acutely aware of the need for a collective effort to face up to the challenge of a highly competitive environment. Yet, we go on thinking, and acting, as if rapid growth, enhanced welfare benefits and higher living standards can be achieved without the need to raise output levels, invest a greater proportion of our resources and decrease our costs. No wonder the Governor says that Malta is paying the price for delayed reforms.

Much like Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who says that the Nationalist Party is paying the price for "responsible decisions" in the form of three successive electoral defeats. Of course, Dr Gonzi does not explain how other responsible decisions taken by his party, such as membership of the EU, won the people's accolades. It seems that the people are not convinced that the sacrifices they have been asked to make are really producing the positive indicators claimed by the Prime Minister.

Dr Gonzi seems to have acquired a masochistic streak lately. A fortnight ago, he declared he would rather sacrifice popularity and lose elections than fail to do what is right for the country. All very laudable, but perhaps the electorate is now waking up to the fact that the loads of "guts" and "courage" which the Prime Minister and his secretary general have heaped upon themselves were singularly missing in previous Nationalist governments which failed to make the reforms mentioned by the Central Bank Governor.

It is not surprising, therefore, that nearly three-quarters of those who took part in this newspaper's online poll described the governing party as "insensitive" to the middle class. One respondent aptly echoed the general sentiment that "it's useless for the Prime Minister to cry out that he's putting progress before power". Another said that "it's just another way for him and his party to camouflage this insensitivity", which is more or less what the ex-Minister of Finance John Dalli said in his Facing The Facts article in this paper's Sunday sister.

Of course, this does not stop the ever-ebullient Joe Saliba from predicting that his party will win the next general election, despite that his opposition counterpart, Jason Micallef, equally confidently has written off the PN's chances of re-election. Both seem to be contending the middle ground, so much so that the Labour Party president Stefan Zrinzo described his party as the "guardians" of the middle class. The extent to which each party sends out happiness vibes to those who occupy the middle ground will surely determine the outcome of the next election.