The website below lists the happiest countries in the world.
http://www.happyplanetindex.org/list.htm
8 out of the top 10 are from Latin America. the US is right at the bottom.
I've pondered over many years why I felt happier when I'm in Latin America. It didn't make sense to me when I was younger, but now that I'm older and have thought about it more deeply, I believe I now understand.
Americans inherited a Calvinistic religious streak where the value was work and not happiness. ie "Work and you're reward will be in heaven." While this ethos has helped propel our nation to the highest economic goals and the number one world
power it has done so without regard to the general contentment and sense of well being of the people.
In Latin America, the reverse is true. Work is a means of being happy, but not an end all in and of itself. Play is a much higher goal than being rich
This enthusiasm for life infects vitiators to Latin America who have spent any extended amount of time there. One feels the energy and joy from the general populace in the streets and seeing happy faces with big smiles affect a person. It is amazing how contagious his is.
Also, Latinos are not stay at home shut ins living a cocoon like existence watching mind numbing television. They lead highly social lives ith friends and neighbors. There is always a get together with food and drinks while engaging in loud conversations with each other with their et togethers spiced by jokes. They are the best joke tellers in the world with many of their jokes being self depreciating.
Over the years, I've attended many partys at people's homes. The Americans will generally be stiff and engage in conversation while milling around standing up for a couple of hours and then go home by 10PM or earlier. In Latin America, they sit and talk and then aftera few drinks will play music and everyone starts singing and dancing till the wee hours. Totally different concept.
Where could Carmen and I go not knowing anyone and be invited as old friends to a New Year's party at a Costa Rican home? We felt as if we knew them all our lives. I simply asked some people if they knew a good place for Carmen and I to go to a New Year's party and they responded , yes , at our home. Perfect strangers did this. We had a wonderful New Year dancing and singing.
In San Jose, Costa Rica last December, Carmen and I were sitting at a outdoor cafe watching the annual horse parade downtown. I just mentioned to the lady owner of the cafe that I would love to ride in the parade not knowing she had several horses in the parade.She stopped one of her daughters who was riding and said you can mount and ride and I did. What kind of people are these that have hospitality in their bones? It never ceases to amaze me at how different Latinos are than Americans. The contrast is mind boggling.
You don't have to worry about some people in bistros taking offense at your political views. If they disagree with your views, you can have a great
discussion with them without anger. Here is America, you have to be careful about expressing your political views as they take offence quickly and
are reluctant or incapable of an academic discussion without getting personal. This is especially so if you use multi syllable words. Poor you if you
mentioned in a southern bar that you did not like Bush. Don't you dare provoke them to think about their preconceived ideas that are not open
to discussion.
In Argentina, we were invited to several homes for parties. In Ecuador, we were invited to eat and go to the bar anytime we wanted at their official Navy Yacht club where we met many officials. A physician and his wife were seated next to us in a restaurant in Guayaquil,Ecuador and they invited us to spend the afternoon driving us around in their car showing the sights.
In San Jose, Costa Rica when I brought a recently divorced Florida neighbor of mine to Costa Rica, the second night I started talking to a guy at my favorite bistro and he said, I'm a lawyer and have nothing to do the next few days. I'll be happy to drive you guys around and show you Costa Rica.
In Ensenada, Mexico, we met another physician and his wife and they invited us to their home for a party.
All these invites occurred in the last two years. I could name you hundreds of invites over the last forty years.
That's Latin America! Happy, hospitable and open people.
Also, older people are still respected and their advice sought out by younger people in Latin America. Sometimes it seems as if a person is simply irrelevant to the younger people once he retires in the US.
There is much more freedom in Latin America than in the US. By this I mean freedom from being arrested or harassed by the authorities. You will not be arrested for drinking a beer in your car or the cops will not descend on you and arrest you for drinking a beer in the street.People are much more tolerant of eccentric behavior down south. I've seen drunks at a bar or restaurant who could barely stand up
and were mumbling to themselves and people just ignore them. Here the owner of the place would call the police to have him removed.
In Latin America, you can argue and plead your case strongly over a traffic stop. Here in the US, you do this and you're likely to get tasered and
cuffed.
Errors of the flesh are understood and tolerated. Here in the religious Victorian Calvinistic ethos of the people, a politician is vilified for having an
extra marital affair such as Clinton, Spitzer, Vitter, Sanford, Gingrich and Ensign. Clinton and Spitzer are the two democrats and still are hated while the rest are republicans who apologized and said their God had forgiven them and they are now OK and still hold office.That speaks volumes about our citizens. When they say their God forgives them, then people will accept it. Clinton and Spitzer never uttered
these magic words.
To my knowledge, my home state of Louisiana is the only state that continually elected Governor Edwin Edwards to office even though he was a serial womanizer and was open about it. When Barbara Walters asked him on 60 minutes about his womanizing, he answered with a smile, "Well Barbara, I ain't no queer." There was nothing hypocritical about him at all. What you saw is what your got. He is
a product of the French, Italian and Spanish left over culture in South Louisiana that is more tolerant like Latin America.
In Latin America , people understand that all humans have carnal desires and this is quite natural and they would think nothing about it.
When I had my little tax right off restaurant in Costa Rica, I would be there for 10 days out of every month for years. My feelings of happiness would go up when I arrived and when I returned , I would feel lonely as if disconnected to humanity notwithstanding I had a business that dealt with a great many people. I think it was because everyone went by car and no one walked. People go home and enclose themselves from the rest of the world. Their cocoon. Now I understand those feelings , but it was vague back then.
Anyway, I now understand the vague feeling I've experienced upon returning to the US. I'm thankful to the US for having been born here and having enjoyed material success, but also having the Latin American experiences that made me happy and more tolerant.
It's the best of both worlds.
Bob
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