Happiness and Public Policy

A seminar on “Happiness and Public Policy” that was held in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2007 organised by Thailand’s Public Policy Development Office and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

This seminar was inspired by two people. Firstly, it was the Thai King’s suggestions and theories on a “sufficiency economy”, which aim to follow a “middle way” of development. The second inspiration came from Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck back in 1972 who conceived the term Gross National Happiness (GNH), which aims to define the quality of life in holistic terms .But it wasn't until 1998 that Bhutan decided to share this idea with the rest of the world.

GNH promotes a sustainable, simple way of life and a peaceful society. This approach has already been incorporated into Thailand's 10th national economic and social development plan, which was based on the King’s sufficiency economy concept. . Its development goal is to have a society where people lived together in peace, happiness and togetherness, including being in good health.

Amazingly, instead of being driven by religious or social leaders, this concept has now been championed by technology-based organizations spearheaded by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), Chulalongkorn University and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) .

These organisations plan to use Web 2.0 technologies to identify what makes people happy, mapping who knows what in communities and in applying technology to teaching meditation or mindfulness.

This noble mission has attracted the support of multinational corporations such as Google, Nokia, Inte, IBM and as well as many of the country’s top universities and government agencies.

This GNH initiative to me is a fantastic illustration of the concept of Creative Governance, where happiness takes priority over economic growth.

For further reading, go to:
www.bangkokpost.com/080807_Database/08Aug2007_data22.php
www.SpiritualComputing.org

Talk on Creative Governance

The above are just one of the many stories on Creative Governance that I have collated.

Please email Dr.YKK at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite him to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.

I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net