Report of Happiness

         In John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs informative "The World of Happiness Report"(2012), they express many methods that will help the human society. They discuss how happiness should play a big factor in the of process of policy-making. They touch on different topics of what effects a person well-being in order to establish what make a person happy. I say this report was intended to a vast audience.

I can relate to this report due to the recession we encounter these past years. They states "Unemployment reduces the happiness of those unemployed and also infects those who do have jobs with the fear of losing them"(104). The topics work, values, religion, education, mental and physical contributes a lot to one's happiness.  The four pillar seems to be a point where it can improve our nation. 

To be or not to be, Happy?

In John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs' informative research paper, The World Of Happiness Report, they suggest that the creation of a global consortium to document what makes people happy could lead to a state of happiness for all.  The authors give evidence that a country’s Gross Domestic Product is not the sole indicator of determining peoples happiness as a country and that the “four pillars” of “ending extreme poverty, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and good governance (99)” should be the cornerstones to achieving a society of happiness.  The authors would like to use this research in order to scientifically identify the reasons for a nation’s happiness to hopefully increase the attainability of happiness for all nations.  The authors’ topic and assertions suggest this paper was intended for an academic audience.

 I agree with most of what the authors are saying in this paper.  The “four pillars” should be what every country as whole should strive for.  I also agree with their evaluation of the United States.   We as a nation may be an economic super power but as far as “ending poverty, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and good governance” goes, we are failing to make the grade.  I think the U.S. and other countries in the same predicament should seek to realign our priorities and balance our want of a high GDP with the happiness of humanity and the sustainability of the Earth.   The “four pillars” seem to be a good place to start.

Don't Worry- Be Happy

Sara Rimer's expository essay The Biology of Emotion-And What it May Teach Us about Helping People to Live Longer (2011) that happier people will be healthier than people who aren't happy both in childhood and in adulthood. In this piece, the writer support her hypothesis by giving the research from multiple doctors. She also starts with children and works her way to adulthood. Rimer's purpose is to show that their emotions has an enormous consequence for their health in adulthood in order to present that they could live longer and healthier. The author's audience seems to center on other doctors but also to unhappy people who may be going through severe health issues.

I related to the essay in the sense that I believe that if you are depressed and down all the time then you're not going to feel one hundred percent while going through. I go through many issues myself and I notice when I'm the saddest about my situation that when the pain is the most unbearable. When it seems that things are going downhill constantly, your health is the next thing to go. I also believe that people go through emotional roller coasters and then they turn to something to supplement that emotion. After relying on that supplement for an extended amount of time (for example alcohol) then you're will try and over compensate for that supplement or no longer try to match it and start to fail you. Another example is when I had a horrible break up, I gained almost 20 pounds. Being down for so long and having that extra weight on me, I began having major health problems. I was at the doctor almost every week. As time went along and I began to get over my depression the weight started to come off and my doctor visit became fewer. In the end, I believe highly that one emotoins and out look for tied in with their health. When one starts to look at life more brightly, I beleive that gives your body the energy it needs to fight against those illnesses.

Through Rose Colored Glasses

Edwidgen Danticat's personal narrative, Between the Pool and the Gardenias (1996), explores a young women's hardship infertility, a cheating husband, and falling in love with a baby that she found on the street. The author develops the story by telling her life story and events to the baby that she found. The author was trying to convince some people cope with the negatives in their life and how some can't always handle what happens to them. The intended audience would be people have ever lost a baby or a cheating husband. It's also intended for people who has ever had anything bad repeatedly happen to them.

Though entertaining and attention keeping, the passage was sad. It leaves you with many unanswered question. What happened to the baby? Why did the gardener think she kill the baby? Did she go to jail for something she didn't do? In the beginning, the story did confuse me. For example, why didn't anyone else notice the baby or why didn't the baby cry like other babies? She explains in the stories to the baby recent events of her life though not in any order. She explains that she got married at an early age and she was a virgin when married. She explains that she tried to get pregnant many times but all ended in a miscarriage. She then explains that her husband had many affairs with many different women and  had 10 other children outside their marriage. She left the village that they lived in and became a maid. She had made love with a man that she didn't know. I feel that we all go through things horrible and all don't handle it as people expect us to. When so many things bad things happen to you at once people sometimes make an alternative look on life. To her, this was normal  but by the end of the story, I thought she was crazy.

The author, even though being of a different culture, wasn't in her right mind. She did many things that in any culture wouldn't be acceptable. An example, at the end of the story as she was awaiting to be arrested for killing the baby by the man that she had the affair with, she says "we made a pretty picture standing there. Rose, me and him. Between the pool and the Gardenias. Waiting on the law". The way the author writes is that everything in her eyes are perfect. With all the darkness and bad around her she still sees the light and beauty around her.

Sterotyped

The title of the story is Black Men and Public spaces(1986), written by Brent Staples. In the story Mr. Staples describes a young man who is treated unjustly as he walks the streets late at night in downtown Chicago. The character of the Story is a graduate from University of Chicago. He talks about the first time he encountered an innocent white woman who was terrified of being in his presence alone. "As I swung on to the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance."

He feels that the young woman may mistake him for being dangerous because of what he was wearing and his race. "It was clear she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse." As he got older and relocated to Brooklyn, he realized that the women there was no different from the women who he encountered in Chicago. "After dark, on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live, I often see women who fear the worst of me.

I don't think Mr. Staples was directing his story to be about race. I think he was only stating facts on how the character was treated as he encountered other people during his late nights walk. I myself have felt terrified at some point where I have came across a man walking near me as I have walked alone.