How happy can Kuwait be?

Need to work at GWB index

The British government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, decided to measure UK’s ‘general well being,’ as there is ‘more to life than money.’
MPs in the UK appreciated the move, saying public happiness and well being are major and legitimate goals for the government and GDP should be associated with GWB (General Well Being) while considering future policies.

The move has been followed by many other countries like USA, France and Canada after economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen won Nobel prizes for their work on this issue.
In UK, the focus will be more on regularly measuring the well being of the public by the Office of the National Statistics which will be checking attitude, satisfaction, public spending on services like health and education and the levels of transparency etc.

Many studies showed that the best policy is the one that produces greatest happiness for all people living in that country, and happiness should be one of the factors while studying the progress of any society besides GDP numbers and the living standards.

In Kuwait and in most countries in the Gulf which are financially stable, we need similar measures, because locals leave the country in large numbers whenever there is a holiday. This is because there is not much to do in the field of recreation and entertainment, and sometimes people leave for other reasons like health, education and so on. Those are important signs however, which mean that people are going elsewhere to seek happiness and satisfaction. Hence, we need to give considerable attention to this fact, especially in the development plan which will reflect the future of Kuwait until 2035. We need to work hard in the next two decades to have a happier Kuwait.

Email: labeed.abdal@gmail.com


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By: Labeed Abdal - Attorney at Law

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/163192/reftab/73/t/How-happy-can-Kuwait-be/Default.aspx

Obama’s midterm setback

Rapprochement with Muslims must continue

In an article ‘Stay with Obama’s opening to Muslims’ in the International Herald Tribune dated Nov 6th , 2010, Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband called the West not to let Obama’s midterm setback undercut his efforts in rapprochement with Muslim world, especially since his visits to Ankara and Cairo helped in boosting intelligence cooperation regarding security issues like in Yemen, besides economic, cultural, scientific, and other issues and in confronting world’s problems like water shortages, global health, terrorism and climate change.

This opinion reflects the thoughts of millions of Muslims. Although media has been generating Islamophobia and portraying Muslims as symbols of terrorism, there are moderate silent Muslims who are the real assets and who can truly be utilized to combat radicalism. These moderate Muslims, especially from financially stable Muslim countries, can help in bringing together their fellow believers in the areas of solving world problems.

The article touched on what is truly needed in challenging times and during global power shifts, especially with the influence of the financial crisis, new creditors and currency wars.
Going back to the voice of reason, the Muslim world must be at the top of the list, given the size of the Muslim community with a population 1.57 billion — one-fifth of the world’s — and is able to provide security, equality and peace within the international community.

Email: labeed.abdal@gmail.com


http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/162647/reftab/73/Default.aspx