SOLYMONE BLOG: CITIES IN THE WORLD THAT ARE ALWAYS HAPPY

CITIES IN THE WORLD THAT ARE ALWAYS HAPPY

Analysis

World conditions now a days are renowned to be at its worst. Everywhere you go you will hear comments or complains that area like Cities are laden with pollutions, gangsters, Drug Pushers and many more bad things that you seldom heard before.

On top of that, we are confronted with global warming and economic down turned or recession. Finally the outbreak of swine flu or H1N1 phenomena , choking every living human being in this planet. Like the song says, “world is no longer a beautiful place to live in”.

However, it surprised me, some group still believed, cities in some part of the world are still happy as they are.
According to a recent survey conducted by Simon Anholt ( an author and policy adviser), there are still 5 happiest cities in world.
Two from Australia, one Brazil, one from Netherlands and finally one from Spain.
According to the report , the world has been fascinated with Rio de Janeiro. Popular perception of the city is infused with images of starry-eyed youngsters dancing into the dusk, backed by imposing mountains and dark sea.
That view has propelled Rio to the top of our list of the world's happiest cities. Famous for its annual Carnival festival (starting Feb. 13 next year), the second-largest metropolis in South America .
"Brazil is associated with all these qualities of good humor and good living and Carnival," says Anholt. "Carnival is very important, it's the classic image that people have of Rio, and it's an image of happiness."
Next on the list is the top city from Down Under: Sydney, Australia. Known for balmy weather, friendly locals and an iconic opera house, Sydney fared well in Anholt's survey because of its association with a popular brand, Australia.
"It's where everybody would like to go," he says. "Everybody thinks they know Australia because they've seen Crocodile Dundee. There's this image of this nation of people who basically sit around having barbecues."
Rounding out the top five are third-ranked Barcelona, Spain, which Anholt calls "the classic Mediterranean city"; fourth-ranked Amsterdam, Netherlands, because Anholt's young respondents "know you can smoke dope in the bars"; and Melbourne, Australia, which makes the list simply because it's in Australia.
"People know it's in Australia, and that it's full of Australians," says Anholt. "Therefore, it must be fun."
According to Anholt, It is not easy to pursue of happiness and it is difficult to quantify. Therefore he acknowledges that his data is less an indicator of where local populations are happiest than a reflection of respondents' thinking about where they could imagine themselves happy.
"This is a survey of perception, not a survey of reality," he says. "People write to me all the time and say 'that's not true.' It probably isn't true, but it's what people think. The gap between perception and reality is what interests city governments."
Other places in the world that lack the metropolitan flair of the cities on this list are often identified with the notion of happiness. "Anyone lucky enough to visit the magical Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan would know that there is no competition: There can be no happier place," says Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. "This small Buddhist nation of incredibly stunning beauty follows a unique guiding philosophy of GNH; Gross National Happiness.
You can see it in their open faces, they smile from the heart. Barcelona has nothing on them."
Global rivalries notwithstanding, Anholt notes that his findings more or less support historical trends, with one notable exception, "The cities on this list would probably be the same if I'd been running this survey in 1890, aside from Sydney and Melbourne," he says. "Australia is kind of a branding miracle."
Not bad for a former penal colony.