GPI Atlantic, the Halifax based think tank, made headlines in the late nineties for introducing the ‘Genuine Progress Index’ which valued well being and sustainability instead of GDP when measuring the success of a region. Now, through a partnership with the government of Bhutan, they are helping the small Asian country sustain its ‘gross national happiness’ as they struggle to maintain traditional values in an increasingly wired world.

Since 1987, Bhutan has changed strategically from being a country ruled by a long line of monarchs to a constitutional democracy. Two years ago, the population officially elected their first Prime Minister and as they adopt modern media, the country is now finding that tradition and technology can become taxing on the nation’s happiness.

Jigmi Y. Thinley, Bhutan’s western educated Prime Minister, felt that materialism from television and the internet was having a negative effect on the population. In December, he asked GPI Atlantic to hold a workshop where holistic educators form around the world met with Bhutanese educators and government officials to discuss gross national happiness.

As a result of the workshops,  GPI Atlantic put forward recommendations which were surprisingly adopted into policy effectively changing Bhutan’s entire educational system. Instead of becoming robots programmed for specific jobs, children are educated:

“more human beings, with human values, that give importance to relationships, that are eco-literate, contemplative, analytical.”

As Silver Donald Cameron explains in his article in The Walrus, Bhutan and Nova Scotia actually share a similar philosophy of happiness. The thread he ties between the two cultures is a philosophy that there can be enough. Instead of wanting more and more and never being satisfied, these two regions have learned to appreciate what they have, be it family, friends and other simple pleasures in life.

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