According to Happy Planet Index we are one of the most stressed countries on the planet
According to Happy Planet Index we are one of the most stressed countries on the planet. I am really not surprised.
As they are looking for the interplay of human and environmental health and happiness I am even more unsurprised.
We are a country of some very rich, quite a few in-betweeners and many, many really poor. And although it is a fallacy of course to imagine money brings a stress free and happy existence it is also a fallacy to romanticise poverty and imagine the poor to have fewer stresses. I also think that many South Africa (perhaps for different reasons both black and white) and have a bit of an Uncle Tom Cabins idea of what it is to be black and poor – or just poor whatever your race.
There is the idea of the kindly, cheerful, resourceful, religious, restful and happy poor person, happy to help and look up to those richer than him on whom he is often dependent on...
But the reality of poverty is actually far, far different. Poverty in South Africa means inadequate and inferior housing, education, food, health services, municipal services, transport and even a lower life expectancy. It means bathing in a bucket, fetching water from distances, worrying over school fees, whether there will be food on the table that night. It also means lots of a few kinds of foods produced to make it cheaper – but not better for either the humans eating it or the environment it is grown and produced from. It means rubbish on the streets bringing rats. And Rat poison killed rats killing our owls, snakes and other raptors creating imbalances in our ecology. It means burst pipes, sewage leaks and other horrors seldom quickly attended to – sometimes never. It means government officials treat you badly, it means bribes and bought licences and dangerous roads.
It means neglected children, and children who have children. It means child abuse in poverty disorganised homes. It means under-stimulated and under-socialised children having their brains stunted by physical punishments, and a lack of opportunities of enjoying the love of learning.
It means a lack of hope, a cycle of despair. No wonder we have the highest AIDs infected population in the world. People with no hope for the future see no reason to protect themselves for the future they cannot imagine.
Poverty amid wealth means we have crime, envy and hate to cope with. For all of us. Another stressor...And do not forget the anger, fear and hate we still hold within us from the time of Apartheid. That is not quite dead yet however much we talk of our rainbow nation. Pain and anger still lives on and it will take a couple of generations of good societal experiences to get rid of.
No I am not surprised at all.