Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy

Ristotle once said that happiness belongs to the self-sufficient. The man did not meet Egyptians nowadays. Being generally self-sufficient, for reasons beyond Aristotle's wisdom, Egyptians are nevertheless not happy. Sherine Nasr examines why Egyptians have repeatedly failed to rank high in the index of happiness, as shown by a recent survey conducted by the Nielsen company, a global information and media company active in more than 100 countries.

The Nielsen Happiness Index is an attempt to depict how different people in different nations react to current financial circumstances, and how they find happiness, stability and confidence at times of crisis.

Citing 28,153 respondents surveyed online in 51 countries, the report indicated that there are three main drivers of happiness globally: the personal financial situation, mental health and finally jobs or careers.

While in some nations, consumers can be both rich and confident as in the case of Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong, in other nations they can be rich but not confident as in Japan, USA, France and Germany. Sometimes, consumers are poor yet confident as in Pakistan, Argentina, Russia and Brazil. But who can be both poor and under-confident? Those are the consumers in countries such as Egypt and Mexico, according to the Consumer Confidence Index for the second half of 2008 versus GDP per capita, used by the survey as a tool to measure people's attitudes to circumstances affecting their nations. Consumers in the emerging economic nations of China, along with Czech consumers ranked their nation's economic situation as a strong driver for happiness.

The survey has shown that there are five top drivers of happiness for Egyptians. Those are: current personal financial situation, followed by jobs, careers, natural surroundings and finally the relationship with the spouse and family. It will not be surprising to see self-satisfaction dwindling among Egyptians, particularly men, as they witness an increasingly squeezed financial situation in the making.

Women are and will continue to be more adaptable to these economic pressures. Unlike men, who place a great significance on their personal security, physical and mental health, career and personal financial situation as top drivers for happiness, women are more inclined to see happiness in their relationships with kids and friends. They also ranked higher than men in their

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