EDITORIAL - Poor, miserable, challenged, angry but happy

A Gallup poll shows Filipinos are the 5th happiest people in the world. There's your answer, in case you ever wondered why we're the world's 10th most populous country. Despite low wages and runaway prices, the magic formula that has kept the Philippines mainly and consistently poor, Filipinos just couldn't seem to help but stay happy. And this is reflected in the relentlessness with which we make babies.

So at least there is now a global list in which our ranking is something to smile about, a ranking that is not contrived or made up, or at the very least not patently irrelevant. To be way up there in a global list of happiness is something to be proud of, as a matter of fact. For once we have made a name for ourselves in a category that is not as frivolous and flippant as, say, "the longest longanisa" in the world, or similar other irrelevancy.

Happiness has positiveness written all over it and whatever other people may say about us and our unbridled mirth in the face of very serious challenges that would have stymied lesser countries, at least we can tell them to their faces to eat their hearts out because the Filipino is enjoying himself. Make that 100 million Filipinos enjoying themselves. Reports about the latest atrocities by ISIS or the latest flare-up of racism in America do not get into us one bit.

By the way, it might prove to be a point of happy discussion to note that on top of the list, all by its lonesome, is Paraguay, thereby making Paraguayans even happier than Filipinos, at least on paper (at the rate we are making babies at three per minute, we should be the de facto happiest people on earth). Lumped together at second are Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala.

In third place, also lumped together, are Honduras, Panama and Venezuela. At fourth, and yes still lumped together, are Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. In case you have not noticed, all of these happy countries are in Latin America. And in case you have not noticed still, all of these countries are poor countries, some even poorer than ourselves or even more dangerous. And if you are wondering, we will ask it for you -- why is it that poor countries seem to be the happiest?

That is, of course, a very tough question for which there might be no right answer. Maybe we will never even know the answer, unless we get prosperous and start getting what we used to miss, and only then by the difference might we know the secret to happiness. One more interesting point to add - all of these happy countries are Catholic, if it ever means anything.

So hold on to that smile even if you are poor and struggling to find meaning in your miserable life. Maybe that is what life is all about and that the ability to scrape through despite the misery becomes such a mean feat it feels like an achievement. On the other hand, the ability and ease with which the wealthy and powerful can get anything probably kills the challenge and makes everything flat and tasteless. And wipes out the smile.