Telling it like it is, or it should be, or like it's going to be, or the way I wish it would be, or the way my girlfriend who just yelled at me told me it is
WASHINGTONâSpeaking out against H.R. 51, which has now cleared the House and made its way to the Senate, congressional Republicans argued Friday that granting Washington, D.C. statehood would be a slippery slope to the District one day becoming its own planet. âIf the tiny District of Columbia is admitted as the 51st state, whatâs to stop it from going on to ask for recognition as a sovereign country, continent, or planetary body?â Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said in an impassioned plea to senators, warning them to stop the bill or risk emboldening D.C. to slowly grow more spherical and, before long, call for its release from Earthâs gravitational pull. âSure, we could give in to the Districtâs demands for representation in Congress, but pretty soon it will expect its own orbital path around the sunâa blatant power grab for Democrats that would throw off the balance of the whole solar system. It was just a few years ago that we acknowledged Pluto wasnât big enough to be a planet. Do we now want to grant that status to a town of less than 70 square miles? Please.â Mace went on to add that if Democrats succeeded in passing H.R. 51, there would be nothing left to stop California from spiraling into its own liberal galaxy.
LOL… I think it’s a great idea for it to become a state. I think LA and NYC should do the same. It’s not about politics but about representation.
Do you live in the world’s happiest country? Source: Getty
The global pandemic and economic turmoil has caused 12 solid months of lockdowns, uncertainty, job losses and even death, but an annual report on global happiness suggests that while anxiety and fear are at an all-time high, the pandemic hasnât dampened spirits.
The recently released 2021 World Happiness Report shows that while there has been a huge disruption to the daily lives of nearly everyone around the world amid Covid-19, there has been a surprising resilience in how people rate their lives overall.
It even surprised the editors of the report that amidst global hardship, self-reported life satisfaction across 95 countries on average remained steady throughout 2021.
The World Happiness Report for 2021 focuses on the effects of Covid-19 and how people all over the world have fared.
The report aimed to not only focus on the side effects of the pandemic on the quality and structure of peopleâs lives but also evaluate how governments worldwide reacted and dealt with the pandemic.
Where does Australia place?
Australia held its place as the 12th happiest country in the world for the second year running.
Ok so Australia isnât at the top of the list, but considering the fall out of the past 12 months, we should be proud of the stability that our economy and our leaders have provided throughout the pandemic.
Australia, like New Zealand, is one of the few countries around the world which has managed to keep Covid-19 infections low, re-open the economy without major second waves and begin a recovery process.
All of this has had a significant impact on the happiness of Australiaâs citizens.
Australians have a lot to be grateful for.
I certainly still think we are lucky that we live in the best country in the world at the best time in history.
âThe evidence shows that peopleâs morale improves when the government acts,â says the reportâs editors.
Worldâs happiest countries 2021
For the fourth year running, Finland has come out on top in the annual list powered by data from the Gallup World Poll, with Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands following in second, third, fourth and fifth position respectively.
The United States, which was ranked 13 five years ago, slipped from 18th to 19th place.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom fell from the 13th position to 18th.
“We need urgently to learn from Covid-19,” said report co-editor Jeffrey Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
“The pandemic reminds us of our global environmental threats, the urgent need to cooperate, and the difficulties of achieving cooperation in each country and globally.”
The top 20 happiest countries in the world
Finland
Iceland
Denmark
Switzerland
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany
Norway
New Zealand
Austria
Israel
Australia
Ireland
United States
Canada
Czech Republic
Belgium
United Kingdom
China
France
Why do the Nordic countries always rate so high?
It seems a raft of Europeâs Nordic countries continue to rank highly even throughout the past 12 months.
For the fourth year in a row, Finland has been named as the happiest country in the world, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
While I would originally question the appeal of living in just a cold country (there must be something I donât understand), it doesnât seem to be a coincidence.
In fact, Nordic countries historically rank so highly on the happiness report because of the support their governments give them.
Free healthcare, free education, low crime rates, extended parental and annual leave compared to the rest of the world, are just a few highlights of living in these countries.
For example, new parents in Sweden are entitled to 480 days of leave at 80 per cent of their normal pay.
The Nordic have absolutely hit the nail on the head when it comes to work-life balance, which happens to be one of the key contributors for happiness.
The unhappiest countries in the world
Besides the happiest countries in the world, the Happiness Report also looked at the places where people are the most miserable.
And there were some common themes.
Most are located in underdeveloped countries which have experienced war, armed conflict, political instability or natural catastrophes.
This year, the lowest-scoring country in the World Happiness Report is Afghanistan.
Afghanistanâs low life expectancy rate, paired with low gross domestic product rates per capita are the key reasons for its low ranking.
Zimbabwe comes in as the country with the second lowest rank for happiness across the world.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said the report showed that the people were unhappy with the countryâs economic direction.
Rwanda, Botswana and Lesotho round out the remainder of the list of the worldâs five most unhappy countries.
The bottom 10 most unhappy countries in the world
Afghanistan
Zimbabwe
Rwanda
Botswana
Lesotho
Malawi
Haiti
Tanzania
Yemen
Burundi
Michael Yardney is a director of Metropole Property Strategists, which creates wealth for its clients through independent, unbiased property advice and advocacy. He is a best-selling author, one of Australia’s leading experts in wealth creation through property and writes the Property Update blog.
LOL…. This is a great article. There is an error in this article. If you re-read the article and spot it, you are a good reader. I’ll let you re-read the article and see if you can spot it. Ready… here’s the reveal…. In the article it says that the U.S. fell from 18 to 19 while the list has the U.S. at 14. Either way, out of all 197 countries that China and the U.S. make the top 20 seems like that they paid to be on the list, at least this last year anyway. I mean how bad can all the countries be that we made this list this year. I’m not saying that we can’t be on that list other years but this seems to be a perspective not held by many until I read his bio. Then I got, it’s just asking about the pandemic, which with everything that happened besides the pandemic, most people put that lower on the list. China just imprisoned over 4 million people for ethnic cleansing and the U.S. decided to overthrow their capitol and had some major riots that haven’t been that bad since the 60’s, so right now is probably not the best time to make this list because it makes you think wtf could be happening in all other countries.
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