CHAPTER 08: Wanted! a New Karma of Happiness

Chapter eight challenges that the economic growth based development model has not succeeded because the design has not inbuilt distribution. We have inherited not only a world of false ideals, but we also pass them on to our future generations. We have been told that capacity building in life is for higher income and acquisitions and that development would mean commitment to such materialistic achievements. More than two thirds of the world does not understand what development means. People are looking for happiness that can come through wellbeing and prosperity to all.

(from pg 129) .....
"The former president of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam left the president’s house on the 25th July 2007, at the end of his tenure, carrying just two suitcases of his own books and personal items. This eminent scientist and visionary was approached for an autograph by a little girl, after a talk he delivered. Kalam asked the little girl “what is your ambition” and she answered “I want to live in a developed India”.

(from pg 130) .....
"We have inherited not only a world of false ideals, but keep passing them to our future generations. We have been told that capacity building in life is for higher income and acquisitions, and that development would mean commitment to achieve such materialistic targets. More than two thirds of the world does not understand what development means. For the past many decades we have been told that some countries are developed and that some are developing. I have waited over four decades to understand 'development' as it has never reached my country - Sri Lanka. Then I meet so many people from the branded developing countries, while travelling across the world and at conferences, and they too do not seem to have a clear idea and do appear to struggle as much as I do. I also associate a lot of people from the categorized developed countries, and they do not seem to have found contentment or happiness. While they have already had their higher incomes and acquisitions, it is puzzling to see why they are not content and happy in life." ..... 

(from pg 132) ...
"Triggered by the fall of the USA stock market in late 2008, the economies of the capital rich USA and European countries collapsed. In the process of crashing their economies, and through the cascading effect it had on the global economy, they also dragged the developing countries into an economic depression suffocating the livelihoods of billions of people. The fall of the might of the capitalist system was attributed to the greed of wealth accumulating and higher income pursuing corporations and their ruling executives. All that growth and capital accumulation in the rich and mighty countries had not been able to withstand the lapses made by their financial management empires. .... " 

(from pg 134) ..... "During my discussions with senior officers at the Chinese ministry of environment in 2004, I was told that the dream of a Beijing man is to own one large American car for himself and have a smaller one for his family. The World Watch Institute warns that the growing use of oil for China’s burgeoning vehicle fleet is adding greatly to concerns about energy security."

(from pg 134) ..... "Greening the existing industrial production system will not help green the economy. It will not take us towards a carbon neutral society and drive us away from the wasteful lifestyles. A new green world order has to be more authentic than making mountains of the green labelling and green procurement business. Such a new world order will have to make sufficiency based considerations more pertinent. Sufficiency can firstly reduce greed and want for over- consumption through a state of adequacy and contentment. It can also innovate on indigenous knowledge systems to produce without waste, more efficiently, become more self-reliant, and less dependent on external resources. The national economic crisis in 1997, led the King of Thailand to officially pronounce a ‘philosophy of the sufficiency economy’ as the way forward. Subsequently the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan from 2002 to 2006 in the county, adopted sufficiency economy as their economic policy and explained that its goals are to achieve sustainable development and proper well-being for Thai people. It is a balanced development which took into account the economy, society, politics, and environment, aiming to make people in the society happy, self-reliant, and abreast with the world, while still preserving the Thai national identity." 

(from pg 138) ..... "Happiness is a state of mind that may be found through wellbeing, prosperity, belongingness, and contentment in life, and not proved to be through economic growth and economic development. One of the world’s least-developed countries, Bhutan has been worried about what globalization may bring to its country, and has been determined to protect its unique culture....."


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