Prosperity vs Happiness (Shalyn)

Everyone has a different definition of the word 'Happiness'. Starving African children receiving a small bowl of rice from volunteers, to them, that is happiness. A group of volunteers who donates and helps raise funds for cancer patients, to them, that is happiness. A wealthy couple who is able to have whatever they want, to them, that is happiness. As you can see, there are so many different meanings to this word, that there are far too many to name. 

In my opinion, I feel that in Singapore, we should feel happy, because of how lucky we are and how much more prosperous we are when compared to other countries. However, we are not happy, and here are a few facts and reasons why.

Comparing the two articles that I have read (http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/SGP and http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/CHN), I have noticed that Singapore’s gross national income (GNI) per capita (2011 PPP$) is a whopping 75,628.2 while for China, it is a 12,547. That is a 63,081.2 difference. However, the suicidal rate of males (per 100,000 people) in Singapore, is 9.8 while the suicidal rate of males (per 100,000 people) in China, is 7.1. This shows that more males committed suicide in Singapore. Based on this information, I can tell that Singaporean males are unhappier. If you think about it, why would they kill themselves if they were living in bliss? I was curious about it, so I did some research. Based on an article (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201405/why-do-people-kill-themselves-new-warning-signs), I found out that people kill themselves because of sense of burden, sense of emotional pain, escaping negative feelings, altered social world and hopelessness. They weren't happy even though they were more prosperous. Another example that can be shown in the article is the expected years of schooling. For Singapore, it is on average, 15.4 years while for China, it is 13.1 years. This also means that we study 2.3 years more than the students in China. As far as I know, most students absolutely do not like school and studying. The only time when students are happy is when we take a break from school, like going on class outings, having school holidays, or even after our examinations. We work so hard 80% of the time and the 20% goes to our rest time from our hectic schedules. Even though we have that short while of the rather satisfying result or reward in the end, our happiness time span is really very short.

Wealth might mean happiness to some, but to me, it’s not. We are wealthy, but are we happy? No. And that is my opinion.