The happiest people on the face of the Earth
You know, people around here are pretty “satisfecho” with their lives. While not outwardly emotional — Costa Rican are pretty evenly-keeled people — there is a general feeling of security and a soft-spoken kindness among my “Tico” counterparts.
Nick Kristoff, the world-traveling New York Times Op/Ed columnist, is trekking around Costa Rica with his 12 year-old daughter (he filed his article from San José yesterday). He was touting Costa Rica’s most recent claim to fame: the world’s most happy people.
Top of his game: be on the look out, Nicholas Kristoff is wandering the streets of San José.
In fact, when this hit international news last summer, it inspired my first post in the Dispatch from a Small Planet (thanks to my father-in-law Ben).
Nice article, Nick. You hit a few things on the nose — like attributing happiness to not having a standing army (not sure if that logic exactly translates over in Switzerland, but works well here). Also loved how you outlined Costa Rica’s commitment and leadership in stopping deforestation.
But like a traveler passing through, you didn’t get it all right. Besides missing the subtleties of being a happy Costa Rican, I thought the following was a little strange: My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast.
That line would have made sense 25 years AGO. And you obviously weren’t hanging in Guanacaste — foreign owned communities and hotels are the name of the game (I remember Guanacaste 24 years ago — Nick, at this rate, Guanacaste should resemble something like Las Vegas 25 years from now).
So, once again, hats of to the world’s happiest people — they’ve certainly made my world here in Costa Rica a whole lot better.
