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| নির্বাচিত পোস্ট | লগইন | রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন | রিফ্রেস |
Introduction
There is widespread national concern that the values of the market—individualism, selfishness, materialism, competition—are driving out the more desirable values of trust, self-restraint, mutual respect and generosity. Many people feel alienated from the political process; the main parties seem too alike and think of progress only in material terms.
The challenge of our age is to build a new politics that is committed, above all, to improving our wellbeing.
We, Institute of Wellbeing (IWB) aim to improve quality of life by promoting innovative solutions that challenge mainstream thinking and paradigm on econosophy, socio-economic-cultural, and environmental issues. We work for a better Bangladesh and put people and the planet first.
Wellbeing: Myth and Meaning
Throughout history of mankind it shows that happiness is not a goal but a consequence of how we live, that it comes from being content with what we have. Today, we are sold a different message—that we will be happy only if we have more money and more of the things money can buy. Human experience and scientific research do not support this belief.
Wellbeing is a state that occurs on many levels. It is physical, mental, emotional and energetic and all of those areas interact with one another on a constant basis.
Our wellbeing is shaped by our genes, our upbringing, our personal circumstances and choices, and the socio-economic & cultural conditions in which we live in. Our collective wellbeing is improved if we live in a peaceful, flourishing, supportive society, so promoting wellbeing should be a public as well as a personal task.
We often think of wellbeing as happiness, but it is more than that. It is about having meaning in our lives—developing as a person and feeling that our lives are fulfilling and worthwhile.
‘Wellbeing’ is emerging, as a global intellectual concept in the study of poverty, quality of life, health and many other issues, but it remains a variable concept. It is an abstraction covering many aspects of life: in Gasper’s (2003) terms it embraces (at least)
• ‘well-feeling’,
• ‘well-having’ and
• ‘well-living’.
Let us regard it for the time being as a useful umbrella term.
It raises some fundamental issues about the dimensions of human welfare, actions and outcomes, and philosophical concerns about the goodness or otherwise of these dimensions, actions and outcomes. In particular, any discussion of wellbeing should confront both universal and local ideas of wellbeing.
On the one hand, people construct their livelihoods, and the meanings they attach to these, in specific social and cultural contexts. On the other hand, universal conceptions and evaluations of human welfare are part of international discourse, as for example in the UNDP’s Human Development Reports. This relates to another, related duality: between objective and subjective understandings (and measurements) of wellbeing.
There are two main distinct approaches to measuring wellbeing;
• Objective Wellbeing
• Subjective Wellbeing
The objective wellbeing approach assumes that people have basic needs and rights, ranging from adequate food and water to physical health and education. Using this approach wellbeing can be assess through analysis of objective (observable/verifiable) indicators of the extent to which these needs/rights are satisfied. Examples of such indicators include:
• GDP, household income and wealth
• the proportion of children in education, educational attainment, life expectancy and crime rates
• air pollution, water quality and fish stocks
Objective wellbeing measures are well established in the literature; however, this approach is paternalistic: it assumes that certain things are good or bad for wellbeing.
The subjective wellbeing approach avoids such paternalism by aiming to capture directly what people think and feel about their own wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing is an umbrella term which captures factors such as
• how satisfied people are with their lives,
• self-reported health,
• job satisfaction and
• how happy people feel. Subjective wellbeing is generally measured through survey questions.
Wellbeing comes from having a web of,
• relationships and
• interests; but,
• Family and friends
• work
• leisure activities and
• spiritual beliefs can also increase our wellbeing.
The intimacy, sense of belonging and support offered by close personal relationships are of greatest value. Material comforts are essential up to a point, and there is no doubt that poverty remains a serious problem in Bangladesh. But for most Bangladeshis more money would add little to their wellbeing.
In developing an indicator set to measure national wellbeing it will be important to consider the suitability of both subjective and objective measures. There is increasingly strong support for considering subjective wellbeing as a necessary complement to objective indicators. such as;
1. Emotional: the ability to recognize, understand, experience and express a full range of emotions and channel our emotions into healthy behaviors that satisfy our personal and social goals.
2. Environmental: an awareness and appreciation of the critical role the environment plays in our individual wellbeing and that all human activity impacts the environment and can jeopardize the environment's ability to provide essential services needed to sustain life.
3. Financial: informed decision-making and personal empowerment with information on how to use credit wisely, save, invest, and plan for the future.
4. Intellectual: an active mind is essential for overall wellness. Being open to new ideas, thinking critically, being creative and curious, and being motivated to master new skills are the keys to intellectual wellness.
5. Occupational: achieving personal satisfaction and enrichment in one's life through work and intentionally choosing a career path, educational track or vocation that supports our personal goals or passions.
6. Physical: achieving optimal wellness through building physical strength, flexibility, endurance, and optimal nutrition while also taking safety precautions, including medical self-care and appropriate use of a medical system. Making healthy lifestyle choices today will affect health and quality of life tomorrow.
7. Social: the interaction and contributions to the environment and the community. Satisfying relationships, having support networks, participating and contributing to the community, developing the capacity for intimacy and learning good communication skills all contribute to a positive state of social wellness.
8. Spiritual: finding meaning and purpose to life is the basis of spiritual wellness. Spirituality is using a "world view" in order to choose actions that are consistent with personal beliefs and values.
Universal and Local Wellbeing to be developed
Wellbeing in Developing Countries to be developed
Wellbeing and Bangladesh to be developed
What can Governments do?
What NGO can do?
What IWB will do?
Governments cannot legislate to make us happy, but many things they do affect our wellbeing. Industrial relations laws can damage or improve the quality of our working lives; government policies can protect the environment or see it defiled; our children’s education depends on the quality of schools; tax policies can make the difference between a fair and an unfair society; and the cohesiveness of our communities is affected by city design and transport plans.
This paper proposes few areas in which government could and should enact policies to improve our national wellbeing;
1. Provide employment and fulfilling work
Employment and fulfilling work is vital to our wellbeing; insecure, stressful and unsatisfying jobs diminish it. High-quality work can provide us with purpose, challenge and opportunities. Through it we can develop our capacities, begin to realize our potential, and meet many of our social needs. In short, fulfilling work is essential if we are to flourish. Workplaces that provide secure, rewarding jobs should be encouraged. Workplace flexibility, including quality part-time jobs, should operate in the interests of employees as well as employers.
Unemployment is more damaging than just the loss of income, and disparaging unemployed people serves only to increase their anxiety and sense of exclusion. Pursuing full employment is essential to a wellbeing economy, as is ensuring decent minimum workplace standards.
Satisfying work can be found inside and outside the home. Work in the household and in communities is essential to social health but it is ignored because it falls outside the official economy. Governments should value this work, and employers need to adapt to the realities of family life. Maternity leave, paternity leave, care-givers leave and sick leave are not costs but essential to our wellbeing.
2. Reclaim our time
Among the countries of the developing world, we systematically overestimate the amount of wellbeing associated with high incomes and long work hours. As a result, our families, our health and our sense of achievement all suffer.
If we flourish, our working lives should contribute to, our wellbeing and that of our families. Spending more time with our families, friends and communities would make most of us happier, and our workplaces must be reshaped to allow us to reclaim our time.
3. Protect the environment
A healthy, diverse natural environment is valuable in itself; it is also essential to human wellbeing. However, government and business tell us we cannot afford too much protection—it is bad for GDP (Gross Domestic Product). We know, though, that the wellbeing of future generations will be heavily affected if we fail resolutely to tackle biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. Climate change in particular poses a severe threat and demands immediate and far-reaching measures by government.
We can do much more than we have to date. We should increase taxes on damaging environmental activities such as burning fossil fuels and reduce taxes on socially beneficial activities. We should make the generation of waste very expensive and reward businesses and households that reduce their consumption and recycle materials.
4. Rethink education
It is impossible for all students to come first in their class, and our education system should stop pretending they can. Our schools should be dedicated to creating capable, confident, emotionally mature young people who are equipped to face life’s vicissitudes.
Young generations told they will have up to career-bound in their lifetime, yet we insist on making high schools and universities more vocationally oriented. As a result, students learn less about themselves and the societies around them. A greater focus on children’s physical, emotional and moral wellbeing—rather than competitive test results—would produce happier, healthier young people.
We should stop turning universities into businesses selling degrees and make them the critic and conscience of society, places where students flourish as humans and where academics feel free to question powerful institutions without fear of vicissitudes.
“If students not taught how to think, they will do it anyway; they’ll just do it badly”
It’s time to start teaching philosophy as a formal subject in our schools. Education is a rudder that can change the course of society. We must not allow short-term thinking to dictate how this nation educates its young. Let us teach them how to think for themselves. More than any other discipline, philosophy teaches how to think well. Rigour and creativity are consciously being developed and the subject enables students to make a clear distinction between true and false. Not teaching philosophy is a bit like not teaching Bangla, People will do it anyway; they’ll just do it badly.
5. Invest in early childhood
Studies show that, wisely invested money in early childhood education and care, can save more money in avoided costs of crime, unemployment, remedial education and welfare payments. A wellbeing centered government would invest more.
Children need a great deal of individual attention in their early years. Shared parental leave should be extended to cover the first two years of a child’s life. Parents, too, need support so they can do the best job for their children. Adolescence too is an important time; parents need to participate actively in the whole development journey.
6. Live Simple: Discourage materialism and promote responsible advertising
Buying a particular brand of product cannot give us happy family, and owning a four-wheel drive will not deliver us from monotonous lives. But the advertisers seek to persuade people otherwise. Advertising makes us more materialistic, even though we know that people who are more materialistic are usually more self-absorbed, less community oriented and less happy. Materialism is also bad for the environment.
Corporate have aggressively own and control over our media and most of our traditional socio-cultural events and it is impossible to escape their daily barrage. We need commercial free-zones in our cities and limits on shopping developments. And governments should use tax and retirement policies to help people who want to change to less materialistic lifestyles.
Advertisers prey especially on children because they know they lack the ability to distinguish between facts and advertising fiction. As in Sweden, advertising aimed at children under 12 should be banned, and advertising codes of conduct should be made legally binding so that irresponsible and deceptive marketing is outlawed.
7. Build communities and relationships
A flourishing society, like us, is characterized by vibrant, resilient and sustainable communities. Loneliness and isolation cause much unhappiness, especially among single parents, unemployed people, senior citizen living alone and people with disabilities and their care-givers.
Instead of criticizing young single parents who do the best they can, society should support them. Instead of judging people by sexuality, we should encourage all loving and supportive relationships. And we need to help people develop the skills to build stronger family relationships.
We all depend on others for care at some time in our lives. Care is provided by parents, children, extended family, friends and others. We need to value all care-givers more. Government or/and state and employers should do much more to support workers with caring responsibilities.
Governments should also support participation in community organisations, especially among marginalized groups. Volunteers contribute greatly to our wellbeing and need to be recognized and rewarded.
8. A fairer society
Strong economic management will always be needed; but instead of a narrow focus on GDP growth, the objectives should include building public infrastructures and accesses to services create resentment and disharmony.
Instead of blaming the victims, a wellbeing society would acknowledge that some people are left behind by the market. A fairer system of taxation and government spending – including better public services and income support for those less able to compete in the marketplace- would enhance social wellbeing.
9. Measure what matters
Economic growth is treated as the panacea for our problems. But for an affluent society growth in GDP has almost no connection with improvements in national wellbeing. Car accidents and crime waves all increase GDP, but they do not make us better off. GDP takes no account of how increases of income are distributed or the damage to natural environment that economic activity can cause.
We need a set of national wellbeing accounts so that we can monitor our progress. They should report on the quality of work, the state of our communities, crime rates, our health, the strength of our relationships, and the state of the environment. Governments should be judge by how much our wellbeing improves, not by how much economy expands.
Towards a flourishing society
The question for Bangladesh in the 21st century should not limited only how we can become richer; rather how we can use our standard of living to build a flourishing society- one devoted to improving our wellbeing rather than just expanding the economy.
Many Bangladeshis are anxious about declining moral standards. We worry that we have become too selfish, materialistic, superficial and long for a society built on our historical tradition i.e. respect for elders and women, mutual respect, self-restraint and generosity of spirit.
The issues pointed out in this proposed concept paper would inspire healthier communities, stronger personal relationships, happier workplaces, a better balance between work and home, less commercialization and greater environmental protection.
A flourishing society is not a futile hope. If we want we can do it together………
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQgksBjjAf0
Disclaimer & Source: All information and data collected from secondary sources. Mostly by googling, wikipedia, wikisource, facebook and differnt accdemic books, journals’ websites and blog.
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