Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko , like the one that already exists in the combined arab Emirates (UAE). There, this department carries out measures aimed at ensuring that citizens are more pleased with their lives. In particular, the ministry specializes in creating new social benefits, parking parks, etc. Some questions, citizens of the state participate in solving some issues - they put forward their proposals regarding the measures that will contribute to the growth of their happiness.
"They created the Ministry of Happiness. It seems to me that such a ministry would be very useful for Russia, "says Matvienko.
In which country there is still a ministry of happiness?
The Ministry of Happiness, in addition to the UAE, is also in Bhutan. The fact is that the official religion there, or the "spiritual heritage", proclaimed tantric Buddhism. Therefore, by its main goal, the government declares the desire "Fortunately every of his citizen," this is enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution.
The government of the country belongs to this purpose seriously and regularly measures the level of happiness of its citizens. So, the question is "Happy you?" Set during the censuses of the population. In the course last census 2005 45.2% of the population answered this question "very happy", 51.6% "happy", and only 3.3% "not very happy."
In turn, these indicators directly affect the key element of the construction of the economy, on the indicator, which replaced in it the generally accepted concept of gross domestic product (GDP) - "Gross National Happiness" (VNS). It is noteworthy that several times in Bhutan held international conferences, which were invited by Western economists (including the Nobel laureates for the economy), in order to develop a methodology for calculating VNS based on a combination of economic situation in the country and satisfaction with the life of the population.
Tantric Buddhism— Buddhism in which a key role is given to Tantra. Tantra (in translation from Sanskrit - "Communication, thread, sequence") is the practice of enlightened states, death and intermediate states between death and the next birth. The practice of tantra is understood as a means of achieving the final result - the state of the Buddha ("Nirvana").
The Ministry of Happiness was created by the Government of Bhutan, which were ridiculous to rely on financial indicators (GDP) as the country's welfare level.
The Bhutan leadership is focused on the "National Happiness Index" of Gross National Happiness.Index. Nationwide happiness is considered as a key element of the construction of the economy of the Kingdom of Bhutan, which would be coordinated with Buddhist spiritual values.
The Ministry of Happiness held several international conferences, which many Western economists were invited (including the Nobel laureates in economics), in order to develop methods of calculating the IP (nationwide happiness index) based on the combination of the economic situation in the country and satisfaction with the life of the population.
The smile of the population is one of the indicators in the developed formulas.
The most notisable difference is - Bhutan carefully protects its age cultural traditions. Sometimes before curiosities, for example, one of the laws, prescribes butyans to wear national clothing.
Tourism and mountaineering are limited in the country. Dear, not extended visas: 2 weeks - $ 100. Any movements around the country outside the capital, only as part of organized programs on programs drawn up by Bhutan tour operators with an official conductor.
Until the end of the 20th century, television was prohibited in the country, in 1999, Bhutan became the last country on the planet, which began television broadcasting - when the only state television channel began.
Still in Bhutan are very proud of their ecology! Chemical fertilizers and environmentally harmful production are prohibited here. All products are environmentally friendly, no chemistry. The whole country is a big reserve.
Yes, and on the streets very clean. Compared with neighboring countries - just perfect cleanliness! Garbage here are collecting separately! Food waste is hampered in green containers, plastic, glass and metal in blue. As I said, here are very worried about the ecology, so garbage is processed, and not scatter on the roads of roads, as in Nepal or India.
Perhaps this is a country with an amazing culture for us, incomprehensible rhythm of life and really happiness. It is known in the ignorance.
If you liked this material, we offer you a selection of the best materials of our site according to our readers. Selection - top materials about the new person, new economy, look at the future and education you can find where you most convenientlyThe kingdom of Bhutan is one of the most mysterious countries of our planet. This state is located between India and China, on the southern slope of the Great Himalayan ridge, which rises to the height of 7,000 meters above sea level.
Depending on the height, various climatic zones are distinguished in Bhutan, from the highlands to subtropical jungle.
The buttans themselves call their country to Dr. Yul or Druk Tenna, which means - "Country Dragon-Study".
For many centuries, the country was reliably isolated by Himalayas from the outside world, which made it possible to retain here a unique, authentic culture. The official religion and the "spiritual heritage" of Bhutan proclaimed tantric buddhism.
Ministry of Happiness
The Government of Bhutan, considering the ridiculous to rely on the determination of the country's welfare level of such financial indicators, as the gross national product (GDP) created the Ministry of Happiness.
The government of this country was established by the state "Commission on Universal Folk Fortunate" (Gross National Happiness Commission) led by the Prime Minister.
The main goal of the government declared the desire to happily every of his citizen. It is even enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution of Bhutan. In determining the strategy for the development of the state, the leadership of this country relies on such an indicator as "nationwide index" - Gross National Happiness.
The Ministry of Happiness held several international conferences to which many Western economists were invited (including the Nobel laureates in economics), in order to develop methodologies for calculating the index of nationwide happiness, based on a combination of the economic situation in the country and satisfaction with the life of the population. The smile of the population is one of the indicators in the developed formulas.
Are you happy?
Question "Are you happy?" Set during the censuses of the population. During the last 2005 census, 45.2% of the population answered this question "very happy", 51.6% "happy", and only 3.3% "not very happy."
What is still characteristic of the country, which considers the happiness of the population - the category of economic development?
Careful attitude to traditions
The most visible difference - Bhutan carefully protects its age cultural traditions. Sometimes before curiosities, for example, one of the laws, prescribes butyans to wear national clothing.
Tourism and mountaineering are limited in the country. Dear, not extended visas: 2 weeks - $ 100. Any travel around the country outside the capital, only as part of organized groups, with an official conductor.
Until the end of the 20th century, television was prohibited in the country, in 1999, Bhutan became the last country on the planet, which began television broadcasting - when the only state television channel began.
In Bhutan, there is practically no corruption. In the TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 2006 rankings, Bhutan ranks 32 in the world in terms of corruption, yielding only Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and UAE in Asia.
Lawyers here are outlawed! According to the Decree of the King: "In the courtroom, not allow people able to make black white, and white - black."
King Bhutan, Jigme Kzezar Namgyal Wangchuk - the youngest monarch in the world, (1980) is very popular in his country and abroad. Across Asia, and not only in it, there are clubs of fans of a young monarch, from India to Indonesia, are universally sold on the brochures and posters, there are several girls in love with girls in the Internet. The royal wedding raised the "happiness index" of Bhutan to several points.
His Majesty is fighting for the health of his subjects - Bhutan became the only country of the world, throughout which smoking is prohibited.
The government actively takes care of ecology (half of the territory of Bhutan is declared national parks in which, for example, hunting is prohibited), for this reason, the development of industry is not included in the plans of the Bhutanese authorities.
Butane is an agricultural country. For more than 80% of the population, rural and forestry is the main source of income. The main export product is environmental rice, fruits and electricity generated by hydroelectric power plants.
The country is still extremely studied, and huge territories in the south and in the central part are completely not mastered by people and constitute huge reserves with amazing animals and floral world. All this, Bhutan preserved for very simple reasons - the hunt is prohibited and cutting the forests. The kingdom fully provides themselves with food and clothing. At the same time, almost the entire population goes to national clothing - kho.
Life of people
People live in large and beautiful two-track houses, spread over the slopes of the mountains along the small valleys. There are not many cities, but the largest - Timpleh, he is the residence of the king and the capital and has about 40 thousand people.
On the territory of the Kingdom of about 200 monasteries-Dzondov, and some were built in the VII century. Tibet's king Songsten Gampo. For several centuries, they served as a shelter from Tibetan invaders and wild animals. Over time, settlements arose around Dzondov.
This is a truly amazing country without hunger and crime, where people live in joy, not knowing wars and poverty. Button themselves, which, unlike the rest of the region, is quite a bit, open, hospitable, not completely spoiled modern world And carefully keep their unique culture.
Animals here to kill forbidden, and therefore almost all vegetarians. Here is prohibited by the importation of chemical fertilizers, and everything that grows on this earth, in itself is environmentally friendly. An interesting feature of this state can be considered that forests in Bhutan are not cut down, but on the contrary land. I say a little that this is a country of Buddhism, this is a country of purity and enlightenment.
Despite the fact that the early story of Bhutan is still poorly studied, scientists, conducting archaeological excavations and exploring the stone tools, concluded that civilization on the territory of modern Bhutan existed in 2000 BC. Although there are almost no written evidence of ancient times. The history of the country is known mainly to episodes, due to the fact that in 1827 the largest library burned down in the then capital of Punakha Bhutan. Historical events are now inseparable from legends.
The main milestones of history:
III century BC e. - Thapu tribes lived on the territory of Bhutan.
IX century - The beginning of the country's population of Tibetan tribes.
XVI in. - The emergence of an independent Bhutan state.
XIX century - Establishment over the country of British control.
1949 - the country received independence.
Source: Veda-journal.ru.
- What exactly does the Minister of Happiness do?
The name of my title in Russian is a translation error. In fact, there is no minister or the ministry of happiness in Bhutan. I manage. Gross happiness is not just a philosophy, we send these knowledge into a practical direction so that the government can use them in their work. First of all, we define the criteria of happiness, then we associate with the population and the government, and on the basis of this laws are published.
Our country is very small (population of 743 thousand people. - Approx. ed.), And we can easily get into some kind of trouble. For example, factories can completely drain natural resources, and nature - one of their factors of human happiness (in Bhutan until recently there was almost absent industrial productionNow the plant is working, which under licenses produces Coca-Cola. - Approx. Red). In this example, the concept of VNS allows you to control the work of factories, manage internal processes in the country so that everyone lived in harmony. A little bit like the commandments in your culture report to Christians that should not be done. Our studies help develop universal awareness, to be a civilized country in this concern about their culture, nature, society.
- Well, well, you can close the non-elastic factory - and in family cases can you interfere?
For research, we have to ask questions about whether a person is divorced or not whether the child is growing with one parent or he is an orphan. The divorce consists of about 5% of the total population, and this is an acceptable digit for Bhutan. We know where these people live and what projects aimed at improving their lives can be offered to them. Such indicators that determine the strategy of working with the population, hundreds.
And what if some person makes it happy not at all what brings the rest of the rest? Is it possible to call such a person unhappy?
Gross national happiness - a developing philosophy, very modern, and an integrated approach here. The fact that we are with you are and me, the participants of this interview, "we consider happiness, it is important, but this is just a drop in the sea. Happiness you are experiencing when you see members of your family, spouse, is also important, we do not detract from the significance of it. But there is a huge range of indicators. On the domestic, daily level, happiness seems to be something very simple, achievable. We think about happiness in a deeper sense - we contemplate happiness and try to understand priorities.
- After all, everyone has their own.
Quite right. The VNS has nine areas of happiness (on the site it is said that these are standards of life, education, health, environment, community viability, pastime, psychological condition, management efficiency, sustainability and development of culture. - Approx. ed.). We try to make the government satisfy these needs of citizens. Plus, we have the values \u200b\u200bof the Buddhist community - Bhutan was not subjected to colonization, we have 1000 years of unpretentious tradition. However, in the name of globalization, we became open country And we understand that our values \u200b\u200bare far from, say, American. We do not consider their values \u200b\u200bbad - they simply do not coincide with our.
Each religion is beautiful, but it happened that our - Buddhism, so we try to cope with the difficult life of modern society with it. In addition, we are not neglecting and Western research in the field of psychology - they help us understand the confusing mental problems of the population. Here is a man who lives on the hundredth of the skyscraper next to the central park in New York. If he suffers from unsolvable problems, he can go out the window, and our task is to make it go down to walk through the central park. Therefore, we work primarily above inner worldin which there are not many differences between people. Someone is richer, someone poorer, but each of us has all the same 24 hours to spend the time of their lives.
- And yet, how your developments can help the rest of the inhabitants of the planet on which ISIL acts (the organization is prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation. - Approx. ed.)?
It goes beyond the problems of VNS. I respect other religions, familiar with the postulates of the Quran and one hundred percent sure that Islam is a good religion. Terrorism is its incorrect interpretation. Probably, this is a reaction to time requests. It seems to me that after 20-30 years of intervention of other states in the culture and life of Islamic countries, it is logical that someone began to be angry.
Bhutan is far from all this. If the dream finds me in the middle of the night on Takhimphu Street (state capital. - Approx. ed.), I can calmly close my eyes, being sure that nothing distorts me - except in winter it will be cold, and in the summer it is hot. In this city, my friends around. If the whole world adopted the concept of national happiness seriously and tried to take advantage of our principles, then I am sure that the problem of world terrorism would retreasing the background. But who we are! Bhutan is too small - less than one percent of the earth's population knows about our existence.
Casi Zangmo and Dorje Penjo - Expert and Director of the Center for Ravy National Happiness of Bhutan
Bhutan is a country of traditional values. Does it somehow affect you today and how the role of a woman in society is changing?
We fully share feminist glances. For example, my colleague Caci SNBMM from the Center for the Study of VNS, together with which we arrived in Russia is a real feminist. However, I believe that feminist values \u200b\u200bcan be best broadcast by a man. You know when a man says, other men listen to him. And when women say, men doubt.
At the same time, I see the relationship between the floors in our country is changing. In my family, men traditionally engaged in hard work in the field and watched the cattle: to work as a shepherd in the mountains, it is necessary to be physically strong. And women did work around the house - they prepared, looked at the children, washed clothes. Thanks to the spread of education, women began to go to the office as well as men, and men it is not necessary to walk with a plow - there are tractors in Bhutan. We have women doctors, female pilots. And my wife does not prepare - I myself love to sharpen. We recently can become a prime minister with recently, but the tradition is prevented by this.
Tschi Zangemo: Here is the generation problem. Equal rights to women were provided, even when my parents were young. But their generation did not receive proper education, and the older women have no confidence that they will be able to succeed. Today we have both roads and infrastructure, and education, therefore, there are no such obstacles to development.
We fully share feminist glances. However, I believe that feminist values \u200b\u200bcan be best broadcast by a man.
- What is the approach to childbirth in Bhutan? What about abortions?
Tschi Zangemo: Abortions are legally prohibited, but have or not to have children - the choice of each. If you compare with our neighbors - Nepal and India, then in Bhutan a rather liberal society. In addition, traditionally ownership in Bhutan moves to daughters, not sons.
Dorje Penjo: We are very flexible! We are actively promoted by a family planning policy, encouraging the addition, of course. A few years ago, we discussed the provision of thirty-percent quotas in parliament. Some were delighted, others said they did not want quotas and such charity - they need open competition. That is, the introduction of the quota seemed to the Butan women offensive.
- Let's go back to the discussion of world politics - what do you think about Trump and Putin?
The policy is terrible in principle. The art of political diplomacy is to speak sweet lies. But I suppose that Trump speaks from a pure heart. Clinton was lied, and Trump is straightline. Externally, the Americans are very politically correct, support Hillary, but somewhere in their soul there are the refuge of the nationalist ideas and the concept of superiority of the White race, which personifies the Trump. And he turns to those who suffer from forced political correctness of society. I think he won just because his time came. And personally, I generally wanted to win Bernie Sanders, - as soon as he came out of the struggle, I stopped interested in the outcome of the elections.
As for Putin, in Western Media, he is presented with a bad person. He has its weaknesses, but he turned out to be strong enough so that the American influence on the world gave the crack. One country cannot decide what to do the entire planet, - someone had to stop her.
- How is the mass culture affect your country? Does the buttons watch Hollywood movies?
Until 1999, we did not have national television, but there were plates in some homes. True, television has become only in the last decade. The broadcast of American worm and films about Superman and Batman are especially popular. There was even a story when one boy imagined himself a superhero and jumped out the window. Of course, died. But these are all isolated cases - the Himalayan ice and mountains play the role of natural barriers between us and Western countries. The main impact on us is provided by the television of India. At the time when I finished college, I remember how everyone watched the Indian cinema and listened to music on Hindi.
- Do you yourself listen to rock music?
Sure! I have three favorite English-speaking musicians: The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. What I don't like, so this is modern songs - they are some empty. I better listen to Bruce Springstina or "Seasons" Tchaikovsky. You turn on the "spring" and somehow come to life, update, even if the winter window.
- What do you think is able to experience happiness?
Buddhism Vajrayana is practiced in Bhutan. If you explain the uninitiated, then imagine, as in science one theory replaces the other, it replaces the third, postmodernism comes out of modernism. Vajrayana is something like postpostsodernism: there is no absolute good or evil. You use the mind, wisdom to train yourself and self-improvement. Even garbage can be turned into jewels. We try to keep themselves at a distance from harmful emotions - as you gain this distance is the conversion of the mind. For example, cloning for Buddhism is not a problem at all - let it be cloned! It is not discussed as a moral topic. You can think about Buddhism as a religion that perceives the reality that it is, - in practice, we do not strive to organize a society in some "Buddhist". Thinking about religion at all, we mean theistic religions - faith in God. But in Buddhism at the level of practice, such things are secondary - they are not discussed.
- What personally makes you happy?
If we talk about the indicators of the VNS, then I am a very happy person. I was lucky to be born by a Buddhist in Bhutan, where the beautiful king. I got a good education, I have excellent work. I have a wonderful family, there are no health problems. The only thing that inconvenience gives me is migraine, annoying inconvenience, with whom I come across several times a week. More from trouble - recycling. And so everything is good - and with his wife, and with relatives. I have no enemies.
I studied at the Australian University at the Anthropology Department - it was extremely useful for my profession, helped in a career, but it turned out to be completely meaningless to my mind. I consider an awakening of 4-5 in the morning with more useful, while the family sleeps, and walking around the steps is part of my daily spiritual practice. When I look at the clock, the time reminds me to calm down, temper my malice, pacify the ego. I am 44 years old on your calculus system - on a Buddhist calendar 45. If I have to die in the next few years, I will not regret anything: I lived a very meaningful life.
