Pinoys find happiness in world's 'happiest country'
Pinoys find happiness in world's 'happiest country'
JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO, OFW Journalism Consortium
05/17/2011 | 05:30 PM
CHIA, Colombia — She found happiness in a region clutched in a drug trade.
But Filipino Maricel Piniero discovered it not in acid-laden joys but in finding Filipinos, a rarity in this Latin American country.
She blurted into Tagalog “dahil sa tuwa" (out of joy) when she saw the Filipinos who traveled 19,000 miles from Manila for a global conference at the posh Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia’s capital.
They were the first Filipinos who Piniero met after leaving the Philippine capital ten months ago. They were also the first she traded dance steps with at the lively Andres Carne de Res bar.
Piniero’s disposition proves studies on overseas migration and happiness that says people from “unhappy" countries may be motivated to migrate to a “happier" country. Vice versa, people from happy countries are said to be less motivated to move elsewhere.
A 2009 study by United States academics Linnea Polgreen and Nicole Simpson noticed a unique result: the happiest countries had increasing emigration rates, as net migration rates increase in the happiness of the destination country.
Optimism has something to do with people’s willingness to take advantage of better opportunities overseas, the two theorized, using 24-year data from the World Values Survey.
“One explanation is that migrants from happy countries are more optimistic than people in less happy countries, and people in happier countries are more optimistic about life in general and the possibilities that exist outside of their country," pharmacist Polgreen and economist Simpson wrote.
Even while insurgency prevails in Colombia and policemen are found in every street corner of the capital, surveys by the WVS Association, the Happy Planet Index by the new economics foundation, and the happiness index by the Gallup World Poll, consistently showed that Colombia is the happier country than the Philippines.
In contrast, data by the World Bank on international migration showed that the Philippines had more migrants and migrant remittances than Colombia.
Piniero’s pining
Frying pans and old wine bottles hanging on the ceiling swayed andante (moderately slow) as Latin music filled the Andres Carne de Res bar.
It was the first time Piniero went to this place, which is 30 kilometers north of Bogota.
She partied all night.
“Some of my friends here and in the Philippines love to dance, which I do, too," said Piniero, assistant professor at the Universidad de los Andes. The school, she said, is the equivalent of the Philippines’ Ateneo de Manila University.
But the happiness Piniero enjoys in Latin America’s coffee hub is not entirely because of her overseas migration, even if Polgreen and Simpson’s paper thinks that “it might be the happiest citizens who move abroad," given overseas movers’ optimism.
Human experiences in general give glee to foreigners like Piniero here: dancing, singing, watching television, eating Colombian food, and being with a person one cares about.
“I am a happy person and I make it a point that I see and experience it in every little things that I do."
Still, on her seventh month in Colombia and her sixth time to be in a Latin American country, Piniero said she can’t find any compatriot — even in Catholic churches here.
According to recent Philippine government data, less than a hundred Filipinos are scattered in Colombia.
Government estimates 24,407 Filipinos, mostly contract workers, are scattered in the total 48 countries in Latin America, which includes Central America and the Caribbean.
“The region offers a lot of things that can make a [Filipino] happy: food recipes, different fruits, Latin music and dance," said Piniero, a Philippine-trained anthropologist.
Utility
Another reason for the optimism from overseas migrant may have to do with a person’s aim for self-improvement.
Migration decisions, say Polgreen and Simpson, may see people compare their utility — i.e. talent, skills and income possibilities — “of living in the home country with the utility of living abroad".
Happiness then follows.
“If the utility of living abroad exceeds the utility of staying home net of migration costs such as distance, language, or the family left home, the [person] will move abroad. Happiness ... captures something meaningful about utility."
Not that Piniero is lonelier in the Philippines.
She admits to being homesick at times. But she has been accustomed to traveling.
Professional advancement brought her first to the United States and then to Ecuador, her first Latin American country sojourn.
After acquiring a doctorate from the University of Georgia in Atlanta, research projects in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador followed.
Tuckered out, Piniero went home to the Philippines and rested for a year until she secured a financially- and professionally-rewarding job as dissertation advisee of hers forwarded a job as assistant professor under the Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre Desarrollo.
CIDER is Universidad de los Andes’s research arm for interdisciplinary studies in development.
Piniero’s earnings alone reveal her utility as she occasionally sends money to her parents and siblings in the Philippines.
Latin America is an interesting region to be in, she told the OFW Journalism Consortium. As an anthropologist, “it is more satisfying for [me] to work in a country or culture different from our own," Piniero said.
Still, on the day that she was with compatriots who endured an over 30-hour plane ride to Colombia, Piniero and the Filipinos were more than satisfied.
And they partied all night in one of the happiest countries in the world, drug-free. — OFW Journalism Consortium
JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO, OFW Journalism Consortium
05/17/2011 | 05:30 PM
CHIA, Colombia — She found happiness in a region clutched in a drug trade.
But Filipino Maricel Piniero discovered it not in acid-laden joys but in finding Filipinos, a rarity in this Latin American country.
She blurted into Tagalog “dahil sa tuwa" (out of joy) when she saw the Filipinos who traveled 19,000 miles from Manila for a global conference at the posh Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia’s capital.
They were the first Filipinos who Piniero met after leaving the Philippine capital ten months ago. They were also the first she traded dance steps with at the lively Andres Carne de Res bar.
Piniero’s disposition proves studies on overseas migration and happiness that says people from “unhappy" countries may be motivated to migrate to a “happier" country. Vice versa, people from happy countries are said to be less motivated to move elsewhere.
A 2009 study by United States academics Linnea Polgreen and Nicole Simpson noticed a unique result: the happiest countries had increasing emigration rates, as net migration rates increase in the happiness of the destination country.
Optimism has something to do with people’s willingness to take advantage of better opportunities overseas, the two theorized, using 24-year data from the World Values Survey.
“One explanation is that migrants from happy countries are more optimistic than people in less happy countries, and people in happier countries are more optimistic about life in general and the possibilities that exist outside of their country," pharmacist Polgreen and economist Simpson wrote.
Even while insurgency prevails in Colombia and policemen are found in every street corner of the capital, surveys by the WVS Association, the Happy Planet Index by the new economics foundation, and the happiness index by the Gallup World Poll, consistently showed that Colombia is the happier country than the Philippines.
In contrast, data by the World Bank on international migration showed that the Philippines had more migrants and migrant remittances than Colombia.
Piniero’s pining
Frying pans and old wine bottles hanging on the ceiling swayed andante (moderately slow) as Latin music filled the Andres Carne de Res bar.
It was the first time Piniero went to this place, which is 30 kilometers north of Bogota.
She partied all night.
“Some of my friends here and in the Philippines love to dance, which I do, too," said Piniero, assistant professor at the Universidad de los Andes. The school, she said, is the equivalent of the Philippines’ Ateneo de Manila University.
But the happiness Piniero enjoys in Latin America’s coffee hub is not entirely because of her overseas migration, even if Polgreen and Simpson’s paper thinks that “it might be the happiest citizens who move abroad," given overseas movers’ optimism.
Human experiences in general give glee to foreigners like Piniero here: dancing, singing, watching television, eating Colombian food, and being with a person one cares about.
“I am a happy person and I make it a point that I see and experience it in every little things that I do."
Still, on her seventh month in Colombia and her sixth time to be in a Latin American country, Piniero said she can’t find any compatriot — even in Catholic churches here.
According to recent Philippine government data, less than a hundred Filipinos are scattered in Colombia.
Government estimates 24,407 Filipinos, mostly contract workers, are scattered in the total 48 countries in Latin America, which includes Central America and the Caribbean.
“The region offers a lot of things that can make a [Filipino] happy: food recipes, different fruits, Latin music and dance," said Piniero, a Philippine-trained anthropologist.
Utility
Another reason for the optimism from overseas migrant may have to do with a person’s aim for self-improvement.
Migration decisions, say Polgreen and Simpson, may see people compare their utility — i.e. talent, skills and income possibilities — “of living in the home country with the utility of living abroad".
Happiness then follows.
“If the utility of living abroad exceeds the utility of staying home net of migration costs such as distance, language, or the family left home, the [person] will move abroad. Happiness ... captures something meaningful about utility."
Not that Piniero is lonelier in the Philippines.
She admits to being homesick at times. But she has been accustomed to traveling.
Professional advancement brought her first to the United States and then to Ecuador, her first Latin American country sojourn.
After acquiring a doctorate from the University of Georgia in Atlanta, research projects in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador followed.
Tuckered out, Piniero went home to the Philippines and rested for a year until she secured a financially- and professionally-rewarding job as dissertation advisee of hers forwarded a job as assistant professor under the Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre Desarrollo.
CIDER is Universidad de los Andes’s research arm for interdisciplinary studies in development.
Piniero’s earnings alone reveal her utility as she occasionally sends money to her parents and siblings in the Philippines.
Latin America is an interesting region to be in, she told the OFW Journalism Consortium. As an anthropologist, “it is more satisfying for [me] to work in a country or culture different from our own," Piniero said.
Still, on the day that she was with compatriots who endured an over 30-hour plane ride to Colombia, Piniero and the Filipinos were more than satisfied.
And they partied all night in one of the happiest countries in the world, drug-free. — OFW Journalism Consortium
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