Euphoria
Ahmed Waris, Mohammedpur, Dhaka
London School of Economics recently termed Bangladesh as being the "happiest nation on Earth". Interesting. People living in the rural areas have been consistently rated as being 'happier', 'more trusting' and also 'more content'. They take what little they can and manage to string a simple but content life on that little, coupled with some social support. They do not know and I wager do not care about Transparency International. But we do have a substantial number of 'educated' people who do, and so far two people have asked, one from abroad, why are Bangladeshis so 'happy' even with the myriad problems? A simple answer, simply because all of us somehow or the other manage to profit from rule breaking and the negative situation around us. Someone who wants to smoke will simply light up under a sign reading "No Smoking Here" and then argue that if anyone has a problem he can move away. People who break traffic rules pay a few taka to get away from the on-duty sergeant and use the excuse, "Others do it too, why should I not do it?" Going up the chain, a politician may take huge bribes to sell out the interests of the nation while a judge may do the same to let loose a notorious criminal. He does it and is happy, I do it and I'm happy too. So everyone here is happy with the situation.
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