SIKH VIRSA ARTICLE ( MAY 2019)

SUPER VISA/BLUE CROSS : 403-681-8689
It’s not just you: The world is
becoming an angrier place
Study finds a record 22 per
cent of us are angry, with factors
including wealth, health,
freedom and trust playing
crucial determining roles
Many of us experience the
world from inside bubbles that
tend to get rather heated when
they’re exposed to the outside
world – or to social media.
Twitter users, for instance,
may wake up to
@russianbot35262 s insults in
the morning and go to bed after
reading a blog post confirming
their view that the world is going
downhill.
Meanwhile, on Facebook,
French President Macron’s
warning that Europe is returning
to the 1930s could at any given
moment be competing for
attention with stories on the
perhaps “world’s worst famine
in 100 years,” a colony of 40,000
innocent penguins facing
extinction in Antarctica and,
well, Pamela Anderson storming
out of a fundraiser, in protest
against the world’s focus on
Notre Dame instead of other
pressing issues that are
threatening humanity.
Or maybe you are just
reading about how your
neighbors are preparing for the
apocalypse (or Brexit) by
stockpiling cans of tuna.
Sometimes, when the
“happy mood” playlist you put
on abruptly ends, that poses the
question: Is it just me, or is the
world around me really getting
angrier?
Last year, 22 percent of
respondents across 142
countries polled by Gallup
globally said they felt angry,
which was two percentage
points higher than in 2017 and
set a new record since the first
such survey was conducted in
2006.
Globally, 39 percent of
respondents said they faced “a
lot of worry” – up one
percentage point – and 31
percent even stated they
“experienced a lot of physical
pain.” Stress levels, however,
slightly dropped from 37
percent two years ago to 35
percent last year, which is why
the world stayed at its recordhigh
level on the “World
Negative Experience Index,”
instead of getting even worse.
The index is based on five
measured negative emotions:
anger, worry, sadness, stress
and physical pain, with Chad
being at the very bottom of the
list and Taiwan having the least
negative sentiments.
As it is almost always the
case with global polls, there are
some limitations of this survey,
including different perceptions
of emotions that may be due to
cultural differences. Especially
in developed nations,
respondents may rate their
situation to be bad, even though
they would be considered lucky
elsewhere.
Estonia, for instance, had
some of the world’s lowest
negative experiences, whereas
fellow Baltic nation Lithuania
ranked at the very top of
negative experiences, next to
Yemen and Afghanistan.
Lithuania is part of the European
Union and has been in the
headlines for its “remarkable
recovery” after the financial
crisis, rather than the
devastating wars plaguing
Afghanistan or Yemen. Those
figures suggest that anger,
sadness and worries are defined
very differently around the
world. When the U.N. examined
the Gallup polls for 2013, 2014
and 2015 about three years ago,
they found that regardless of
those definitions – there were
six key indicators that explained
why some countries were
happier than others. Per capita
domestic product certainly
played a role, but wealth was in
some cases trumped by other
factors, such as healthy years
of life expectancy, freedom, trust
in business and government,
but also by things that are hard
to measure and thus often
ignored by politicians:
generosity, for instance, and
having someone who has your
back in times of crisis.
That latter aspect – social
support – was in fact among the
three most important criteria,
besides income and healthy life
expectancy. The fact that
happiness and positive
experiences aren’t only tied to
financial rewards has convinced
some Western governments,
including New Zealand, to
launch programs to boost social
support and well-being as part
of government budgets.
Those initiatives still lag far
behind the seemingly effortless
happiness of parts of Latin
America, according to the latest
Gallup poll, where financial
resources might be scarce -but
so are negative sentiments, on
average. “Latin Americans may
not always rate their lives the
best (like the Nordic countries),
but they laugh, smile and
experience enjoyment like no
one else in the world,” wrote
Jon Clifton, global managing
partner at Gallup.
Of course, you wouldn’t
think so by scrolling your news
feed and reading the comments
beneath stories on the “migrant
caravan,” the “unique kind of
financial crisis” that’ll haunt
Brazil or Peru’s “health
emergency.” (The End)
Sikh Virsa, Calgary 63. May, 2019