| Happiness in Bangladesh: Real or Reel |
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Thursday, October 21 2010, 10:00am - 12:00pm |
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Happiness in Bangladesh: Real or Reel.
The Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ) Department of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB, http://www.ulab.edu.bd ) will hold its second forum on Gross National Happiness (GNH) on October 21, 10:00 to 12:00, at the ULAB Auditorium, Campus A. Entitled “Happiness in Bangladesh: Real or Reel,” the discussion will revolve around the World Happiness Survey, conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE), which placed Bangladesh as the happiest nation in the world. LSE professors proved that money can buy everything except for happiness. People in most rich countries (including Austria, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan) are much unhappier than their poorer counterparts in countries like Dominican Republic and Armenia. The study showed that Bangladeshis derive more happiness from their small incomes as compared to the British with relatively large bank balances.
ULAB Associate Professor Anis Pervez and Lecturer Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury will be the main speakers. During the first forum, entitled “Gross National Happiness as a Development Concept” held on October 14, Assistant Professor Hillol Sobhan and Senior Lecturer Marium Akther tackled the evolving concepts of development, including GNH and its nine dimensions. The concepts of development included GDP, Income Distribution, Self-Reliance, Basic Needs, Sustainable Development, Holistic Human Development and GNH.
The two fora take off from the concept of GNH put forward by the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To quote the CBS: “Across the world, indicators focus largely on market transactions, covering trade, monetary exchange rates, stock market, growth, etc. These dominant, conventional indicators, generally related to GDP reflect quantity of physical output of a society. GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs, at the expense of other more holistic criterion. It is biased against conservation since it does not register conservation or stocks.”
The GNH, on the other hand, aims at a deeper representation of well-being than conventional indicators. What exists in a fundamental way is relationality (as opposed to subject and object) at all levels, which can only be assessed by a broad range of social, economic, cultural, and environmental indicators. Seen in this way, happiness and well-being is ultimately a way of being that is affected by and affects relational quality, which changes in meaning over time with deepening sensitivities to the world around us and with our understanding of what is important or valuable for us and for all sentient beings. The nine GNH dimensions are (1) Psychological Well-being, (2) Time Use, (3) Community Vitality, (4) Culture, (5) Health, (6) Education, (7) Environmental Diversity, (8) Living Standard and (9)Governance.
The activity is part of the MSJ Department’s Curriculum Integration Program for Fall 2010. There are ten courses under the Curriculum Integration Program – “Advertising” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Multimedia Production” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Introduction to Photography” (Razibul Hossain), “Video Communication 1” (Razibul Hossain), Documentary Production (Razibul Hossain), “Visual Communication” (Marium Akther), “Development Communication” (Marium Akther), “Scriptwriting” (Hillol Sobhan), “Reading Media Texts” (Anis Pervez) and “Research Methodology” (Anis Pervez). The program will culminate with an exhibit from December 22 to January 21.
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