Monday, August 22, 2005

What a difference a year makes (Update: Or not)

The food crisis in Niger is well known, and the BBC has been at the forefront of publicizing Niger's plight, doing dozens of stories about it in the last month alone. It is odd, therefore, to think that less than 2 years ago the BBC trumpeted a survey which claimed that Nigerians were the happiest people in the world, “confirming”, according to the Beeb, that money cannot buy happiness.

As far as I can tell, the relationship between happiness, food, and money has not yet been explored by the BBC.

(Hat tip to Peter Lorenzi, who has several links on measuring “happiness” including the BBC article, not to mention lots of other interesting tidbits on various topics, like Michael Crichton’s speech on global warming, which has been mentioned here before.)

Update: TAE is a complete bonehead, having conflated Nigeria with Niger, which are, of course, two different countries. Which makes what I said was odd significantly less so. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is adifercne betwen Niger and Nigeria. Look at the map.

12:15 PM  
Blogger ScottC said...

Right you are, paul.

12:35 PM  
Blogger David said...

Ouch. I can feel the head slapping from here...listen ..just delete the post...no-one will know. The BBC do it all the time....!

6:05 PM  
Blogger ScottC said...

David,

I can't deny that I was tempted. But I'd probably slam the BBC for doing so, and I think - I hope - my posts are generally sensible enough for my credibility to withstand the occassional blunder. But you are right...ouch.

6:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've just got to say I admire your courage Scott. Accepting your mistakes like a man will certainly enhace your reputaion.

2:53 PM  

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