World's Happiest People? You Gotta Be Kidding!

The New Scientist Magazine has reported a study by an international network of social scientists called the World Values Survey which names Nigeria as #1 as the world's most happy people. The US comes in at 16th, trailed by people like Russia and Eastern Europe. But Nigeria first, this war and strife ravaged nation where Islamic fundamentalists of the central government in the north encourage the persecution of Christians in the south by killing, burning churches and such? Here's one person's assessment of that nation:

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How long will the world continue to tolerate this insanity?

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At this time in the sorry history of our country, in the year 2002 AD, when technology has become the bedrock of global aspiration and when the entire world is fighting to rid the globe of terrorism and religious extremism and bigotry, our own Muslims seem to be embracing the self-destructive and shameful culture. Ironically, the culprits are the most downtrodden, the most uneducated and the most poor of the poorest Nigerian or Northern masses who have chosen to embrace violence, murder, arson and destruction as pastimes anytime the opportunity presents itself in the slightest.

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They go about destroying Christian churches, hacking down the innocents and creating more ghettos of their subclass communities, wrecking havocs on their poor colleagues and by extension tarnishing the more the image of the place called Nigeria.

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It is hard to believe that a publication made in Lagos could be capable of causing such chaos and destructions, however one thing that continues to baffle me and probably any other mortal like me is the idea of going to the mosque to pray to God but only to come out of that holy place of worship to put on toga of Satan and start killing the innocents.

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Samuel Onipede, PhD
Blogs of WarThe above was a response to a call from a central government official in Nigeria for the killing of a reporter who, like Salomon Rushdie made a degrogatory statement about Islam in relation to a beauty contest.This from the same website:

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:: November 26, 2002
Nigeria Calls on Muslims to Kill Reporter
LAGOS, Nigeria - The deputy governor of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria has called on Muslims to kill the Nigerian writer of a newspaper article about the Miss World (news - web sites) beauty pageant that sparked deadly religious riots.

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"Just like the blasphemous Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed," Zamfara Deputy Governor Mahamoud Shinkafi told a gathering of Muslim groups in the state capital, Gusau, on Monday.

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This "happiness report" sponsored by the world community is just another example of how in the name of religion, tyranny, holocaust and destruction is being tolerated by global powers that be as well as apologists of Islam all the way down to some folks right here on EvC who fail to see the escalating threat this ideology poses to the planet.

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Happiness is about attitude as much as circumstances. If the Nigerian I briefly knew was typical, then I certainly can believe that Nigerians, as a people are very happy.
As for the rest, bigots like you are the biggest threat, no matter whose side they are on.

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There's the Islamic north and the Christian south. No mosques are being burned and no Muslims tortured or enslaved nor is Islam being forbidden. Christian churches have been burned and Islam is being imposed on those who do not wish to become Muslims. Go figure as to who is being happy. Go figure how a nation so strife ridden makes the number one spot of all the world's nations for happiness. I guess that depends on who's ox is being gored. It looks like pro-Islamic influence had some bearing on this supposed scientific study.PaulK, why is it that you find the need to malign and namecall in responding to factual material. If you think the material I am posting is not factual or that I am a bigot, why don't you show proof that the personal charges you are making on this forum about a fellow poster are valid? If this meanspirited attitude continues towards me personally, you can go talk to someone else.[This message has been edited by buzsaw, 10-03-2003]

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You're forgetting, he hates Catholics, too.

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This is another of your blatant lies. I have many friends who are Catholic and I once voted for Allan Keyes a black Catholic for president. I admire Catholic folks like Bill Bently, Bill O'Reilly, and a host of others. Why don't you post refutations to anything I have posted regarding Vatican City or RCC that you feel is not accurate or inappropriate, rather than posting personal lies about my character?

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Just because there is strong feeling, & that some idiot's are prepared to do violence, does not eliminate the nation from potentially being the on-average-happiest.

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Do you really think the US is a contender with it's per capita murder rate? If violence is a criterion of a nations happiness, then the US is nowhere near the top, mate. It's not even on the same page.

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What is it with you people? I am well aware that wealth and prosperity do not necessarily equate into happiness, and I have no problem whatsoever with the US being @16 in the study. Why are you falsely implying otherwise? Why can't you see my problem with the likes of Nigeria being #1 of all the scores of the planet's nations? The more I read about the nation, the more I'd think it'd be high up on the misery index. Here's one assessment of the youth there:

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The Nigerian Youth today is a character of pathos. Many of them beg in the streets for food. They go from one car to another begging for alms with unkempt hair and tattered clothes. The schools they attend for those who do, are without teachers and appropriate facilities. They look at tomorrow and see nothing but a dark void. The nation’s foreign reserve has collapsed and our currency is greatly devalued. Our purchasing power is weak and education, especially tertiary education, is really feeling the brunt. Laboratories are no longer equipped up to standard; the poor economic base has resulted in disastrous spiral inflation to the extent that ordinary books and stationeries are no more within the reach of the students, teachers and even administrators. Libraries are empty. Computer science departments have no computers! Where they are available, more than forty students are attached to only one for practices. What type of scientists, engineers and technologists are we producing? This economic problem has really crippled the nation’s budgetary allocation. For example, N150 billion of today was only N1 billion in 1983.

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http://www.weeklytrust.com/nigerian28062002.htm------------------
Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing except he reveal the secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7

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Buzsaw, you really make me angry sometimes... When the Church was killing 'heretics and witches' in the Middle Ages, did anyone say "Look here, at this ideology! Look at what it's doing!" Don't be so quick to point the finger unless you can accept how much hurt Christianity has caused, and is still causing - and if you think it's not happening today, I invite you to read up on the recent scandals about the Catholic Church in Ireland being involved in child sex abuse.

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This thread is about the current happiness index. You wanta talk church history or RCC corruption, follow the forum rules and open your own threads.

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The thing I found most interesting about that report is that consumerism appears to directly correlate to lower happiness. The increasing incomes of Western countries have generally been matched by the increasing material wants (not needs) of their people. Thus, no rise in happiness. It made me stop and think about my priorities for a while.

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Zepher, I have no quarrel with you here. You're on the money, imo. Happiness can't be bought. On the otherhand, abject poverty and hunger as is not uncommon in Nigeria makes nobody happy either. It appears that there's enough of this in Nigeria to lower the happiness index average substantially.

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Buz, have you ever been to Nigeria? Not that I have, but I'm inclined to take statistics over anecdotes. Honestly, though, maybe the survey is just stupid. How could you even measure happiness, anyway?

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No, never been there. Just going by what I've seen on TV via Dominion Sky Angel and what I've read. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but are you saying, on the one hand, you're going with the study stats, but on the other to say you can't see how the study could measure happiness stats??Anyhow, I agree. It's a rather silly study. it appears politically motivated. I'm still shaking my head on the #1 pick though, regardless. How could anyone in their right mind pick this looser, strife ridden unstable nation as no. one of all the nice places in the world? These people are anywhere near as happy/content as the Swiss on average? I dooooon't thinnnnnk so.

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First off, I do think you've had your character unnecessarily impugned in this thread, and I apologize to you for them.
However, I do have to disagree with this. The large riot due to the beauty contest that everyone is familiar ended with 20 churches and 8 mosques being burned; however, the churches were much smaller than the mosques and served less people each, so it was about even in terms of religious followers who had their place of worship burned.

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It's unfair to pretend that Christians are somehow less violent worldwide. It's just not true. If you don't believe me, tell that to the victims of the Phalangists.

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In Kano, government buldozers leveled 20 Christian churches for "environmental" purposes. No Muslim structures were involved for this purpose.The pagent violence was initiated by busloads of militants bussed in to use the event as an excuse to go at the Christians. My understanding is that the majority of the 200 deaths were Christians and in this violence only Christian churches were burned. I believe the mosques you mentioned were another incident where Muslim bus drivers were insisting that Christians sit in the back of the bus as 2nd class citizens or non-citizens. This caused reprisal and the mosques were burned
And this which indicates a far higher ratio of Muslim violence compared to Christian violence.:

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KADUNA, Nigeria (Compass) -- A total of 294 churches have been burned in Kaduna city of northern Nigeria during Muslim-Christian clashes since the Kaduna state government decided to adopt and implement the Islamic legal system last year.

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The violence has also left thousands of Christians homeless and dramatically increased the number of widows and orphans, according to the Macedonian Initiative (MI), a Christian non-governmental organization, which released the figures in June.

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Nigerian Christian ministers and denominational leaders established the Macedonian Initiative to provide aid to those who have suffered because of the ongoing conflict.

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"The situation in Kaduna is pathetic," said Pastor Ladi Thompson, the MI spokesperson. "In spite of government and CAN's (Christian Association of Nigeria) effort so far, the devastation is so much that not up to 10 percent of it has been addressed. Many children are now orphans, women are now widows, many children's education has been disrupted, their schools having been destroyed or their parents killed. These people have no roof over their heads anymore, and they are roaming the streets."

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Page not found - Christian Persecution Information[This message has been edited by buzsaw, 10-03-2003]

Rei, your link gives some statistics, but no details. My link is Christian based, but does give some nasty details. I've check other links and none refute what my link states. They simply omit the stats on who's being killed and by whom. I'm not saying Muslims aren't being killed, but by and large the war's a Muslim Jehad type of thing and naturally Chrisians are forced to retaliate and to put up a resistance whenever possible. The Voice of the Martyrs rebuilt in Nigeria after their building was destroyed in 2000 by militants. They claim 102 Christian churches were destroyed during the pagent riots and two pastors killed. This initiated by a bussed in group protesting a journalists comments and was used as an excuse for miltants to kill Christians and destroy churches. One government minister declared that Islam intends to wipe out Christianity in all of North Nigeria and government is requiring Islam be taught in all schools, etc. So clearly this nation just can't be the world's most happy/content nation of people on the face of the earth, no matter how you cut it.Islam imposes Islamic religious law on about 30 nations. Nations like Sudan and Nigeria are where Islam rules the central governments but Jehad has not taken over the entire nations........yet. Both have Christian southern setors holding out.

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So why does your quote dwell entirely upon the economy of Nigeria, & the poverty of Nigerians?

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1. Reread my links and posts. I've covered the strife, the bloodbaths, the homelessness, the oppression, the tyranny, the destruction, the lack of freedom, the fear and about everything indicative of a high misery index rating with this nation.2. Because Nigeria was picked of all the scores of nations on this planet for winning the trophy as #1/first place/world champs for being a happy nation of people. Are the revisionists now revising the definition of happiness along with about everything else, or what?
3. The thread happens to be about this very bizarre finding of a world body scientific study published by a scientific journal. Is this indicative of the overriding influence Islam exerts over the UN body and the power of the thought/speech censorship police of Islam?

If this nation were named Yugoslavia and the oppressive government were the persecutors of Muslims, the details could all be exactly the same but rather than being called world class happiness champs the government would be either under siege or highly censored by the world body, world media and academia.

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Paranoia is treatable.

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...........And paranoia should be documentedly diagnosed before determining necessity for treatment.

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You seem to have a problem with Islam, buz. If the "ye olde evolutionist" conspiracy wasn't enough to contend with, there's now the Islamic power behind the throne at the UN, plotting global domination. It will only take you a mental hop & a skip to link the two, & thus begins the one man frothing-at-the-mouth military crusade against evolislam.

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While evolutionists have managed to impose their ideology on the national education system in America, the threat to dominate the entire planet in every aspect of life, including thought, speech and activity was not their stated and desired goal and determination. I've done my homework on the life and times of the prophet Mohammed, read much of his teaching, laws and goals for Islam. I've observed the crescendo of terrorism which his closet fundamentalist desciples have perpetrated on the world to advance Islam, in direct emulation of how the prophet himself founded and grew the religion in his life, i.e. by the sword. I see this as the threat to Nigeria.------------------
Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing except he reveal the secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7

Time to wind up this thread.Bottom line: I see every poster in this thread, bar none, appears to agree with the study, that Nigeria is indeed the place to go for happiness.So "DON'T WORRY! BE HAPPY!" All ye posting lubbers of glee, move to Nigeria. Why in the world would you remain to endure the misery index of #16?

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I don't speak, uh, Nigerian.

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It's because as I said, happiness isn't what you have, it's what you don't know you don't have. Coming from America I'd be all too aware of what I'd lack. Being born in Nigeria and subject to relatively little media, however, I'd have no idea that video games even existed (for instance).

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So you think those fatherless and motherless youths begging in streets, those penniless widows whose husbands and relatives have been butchered, those scores of parishioners whose churches have been burned and those multitudes being threatened with Islamic Shariea impositions, who wonder when their turn comes, are so ignorant as to be oblivious to the cloud of tyranny hanging over their heads, Crashfrog?Nigeria is experiencing the escalation of ravaging civil war, which is not being waged in some obscure corner of the nation. Terrorism is ravaging the happless religious minorities of their largest cities.