Singaporeans a Happy Lot? ( :

I nearly laughed and fell off the chair when I read the article about the survey "Singaporeans a Happy Lot" done in 2006 by our NUS lecturer who claimed that Singaporeans are a Happy lot!



In the CNA article, a rather funny quote from i find from Dr Siok Kuan Tambyah, senior lecturer from NUS Business School was:

"I think we would see a dampening of sentiments in terms of Singaporeans' optimism about the future and economic prospects. I don't think we will see a plummeting of this index, if you want to call it an index." Index does not fall or rise?

Is the lecturer trying to say that if you are out of job or being retrenched you will still be happy?

I check on the Free Dictionary and it explained Index as: "6. A number that represents the change in price or value of an aggregate of goods, services, wages, or other measurable quantity in comparison with a reference number for a previous period of time."

I also compared the survey with the Happy Planet Index and revealed that Singapore is in 49th position, behind Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, China and Malaysia etc.

Of course, its a research and survey based on certain bias from both sides. I certainly believed Singaporeans are now less happier than previous years. But I wondered why used a 2006 survey to be used in a different economical climate?

70% of Singaporeans happy? Another political Spinning.