Articles
Articles
The following article appeared in Saturday's Herald Sun out of Melbourne, the tabloid newspaper with the largest circulation in Australia.
Search for a simple life
Author: Neil Kearney
Publisher: News Ltd
Publication: Herald Sun , Page 029 (Sat 27 Aug 2005)
Keywords: Tourism (1) Australia (1)
Edition: 1 - FIRST
Section: SATURDAY
What can Australians learn from a tiny Himalayan kingdom? Plenty, according to a happy former deputy prime minister
WHEN a political figure urges us to think about our happiness, the usual reaction is to either reach for the nearest bucket or brace ourselves for an election.
But the quest for happiness is something that has long occupied the busy mind of former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Tim Fischer.
He struggled to be happy when he was a boarder at Xavier College, a loner with a speech impediment.
And he quit the Parliament because he was unhappy about not spending enough time with his family. Canberra, he says, is ``a hard place to be happy''.
Now chairman of Tourism Australia, big Tim is on a campaign trail of sorts, trying to convince Australians that we should measure and embrace happiness.
Working with the north central Victorian shire of Indigo -- which takes in the towns of Beechworth, Yackandandah, Rutherglen and Chiltern -- Fischer has introduced Australia's first Gross National Happiness Index.
Recently residents of the shire were handed a survey in which the first question asked: On a scale of one (very sad) to seven (very happy), how happy do you feel today?
The survey then asked people to rate their happiness according to national, international and local factors which include environment, economic situation, government performance, security, cultural tolerance and wellbeing.
When the first survey was conducted in Indigo shire last summer, 71 per cent said they were happy. The figure climbed to 72.5 per cent in autumn, but dropped to 68 per cent in the first week of winter, a fall put down to the lack of early season rains.
The result of the latest survey will be announced next Thursday, the first day of spring.
Tim Fischer proposed the happiness index to several shires in Victoria and NSW, but Indigo was the only one that took it up.
He says that Aussies measure almost everything, but not the one factor that really matters.
By thinking about what elements make them content -- and the issues that upset them -- he says people will open their minds to the factors that might bring them real happiness.
While the GNH concept is new to Australia, Fischer says he is merely adapting what has worked quietly but effectively for three decades in the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan.
He first heard about Bhutan 20 years ago when he was a junior shadow minister in Andrew Peacock's Opposition.
"Peacock had some linkage with Shirley MacLaine, who had written a book about this tiny kingdom of Bhutan.
"I thought: I better go and have a look at this. I've been back every couple of years since, mainly for the benefit of my mind and soul, and also to learn.''
Bhutan's king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, pronounced Gross National Happiness as the country's philosophy soon after he was enthroned in 1972.
For more than 30 years it has been the benchmark for the country's Buddhist population of fewer than a million.
The happiness factor has taken a while to catch on around the world, probably because Western governments don't see a lot of revenue in advocating concepts such as free time, leisure and strict preservation of national culture.
There are no golden arches in Bhutan and the country's work practices don't have a lot in common with the industrial relations model being proposed by the Australian Government.
According to Tim Fischer, Bhutan's philosophy is that market-led happiness is an illusion.
The Bhutanese creed is that ruthless competition and the drive for profit are the very causes that serve to dehumanise society and undermine the factors that create happiness.
When we meet on a rainy Thursday morning in Beechworth, Fischer is on his way to spread the GNH message at a local tourism seminar.
He has 30 minutes to chat, and is going faster than a Sydney to Melbourne train.
As he breezes into the local bakery, he waves like a signalman to the driver of a passing utility, greets two elderly ladies in the doorway, shouts mock abuse at the baker, changes tracks to shake hands with a posse from the shire office and orders coffees and raisin toast.
He has already driven 40 minutes from Albury, where the family has a house, having dropped sons Harrison and Dominic at school in Wodonga.
HE is back in Albury the next day to complete the school run -- but, in the meantime, he addresses the seminar in Beechworth, drives to Albury airport, flys to Brisbane, lectures at a tourism summit, flies back to Albury, and presumably conducts 100 whirlwind conversations along the way.
The next night he spends with his sons in Boree Creek, where his sister runs the family property.
Is it possible to be happy when life is so hectic?" It is how I enjoy life and all the stimulation it offers,'' he replies.
"I have found a balance in my life, and that is important. Yesterday I was drenching poll herefords on my wife's farm.
"I do spend two or three days a week on one of the farms but, yes, I do have too many part-time jobs.''
Fischer, 58, hangs his trademark hat in any of three homes -- wife Judy's 180ha property at Mudgegonga in Victoria's Alpine Shire, the Albury town house and Boree Creek.
He also goes hiking whenever he can, hence the nickname Trekker Tim, and is especially keen in the coming months to explore some caves at Mt Jack, behind Judy's farm.
"I certainly feel that I have been able to find a balance in my life.
"Today might appear rather manic, but there are days when I just stay on one of the farms and work with the stock.
"I have never been happier.''
He says the factor that prompted him to introduce Gross National Happiness into Australia was the lack of balance he saw in the lives of many of his former parliamentary colleagues.
I was driven by examples of people post-parliament falling into psychological trenches.
"The vast majority of Australians are in better circumstances than most people around the world, and yet too many of us are falling into trenches, unable to move forward.
"The people of Bhutan are more content, and I think we can learn from their broader outlook on life, their love for things that are simple and strong.
"We all need to be reminded there is more to life than material gain, and to have more dimensions in our lives.
"I know people will take pot shots at me for saying these things. I'm big enough to take it. I think it is worth taking a few shots for the sake of putting this concept out there.''
Fischer wants to convince people that GNH is as important a variable as GNP, CPI and what happens at the ASX.
As he says, the bottom line doesn't always have to be about dollars and cents.
kearneyn@heraldsun.com.au
Sasha Grebe
General Manager Corporate Affairs
Tourism Australia
Tel: + 61 2 9361-1319
Fax: + 61 2 9361 1819
Mobile: 0408 094 661
E-mail: sgrebe@tourism.australia.com
Corporate Site: www.tourism.australia.com
Consumer Site: www.australia.com
