The Jewish Home | MARCH 24, 2022
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The Week In News
Finland is World’s Happiest
The Finns are always smiling. The 10th annual World Happiness Report has found that Finland is the happiest country in the world, out of around 150 nations examined. The report’s authors noted, “Past reports have looked at the links between people’s trust in government and institutions with happiness. The findings demonstrate that communities with high levels of trust are happier and more resil-
ient in the face of a wide range of crises. This year’s report comes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended lives around the world.” John F. Helliwell, a Canadian economist and the editor of the World Happiness Report, said, “We found during 2021 remarkable worldwide growth in all three acts of kindness monitored in the Gallup World Poll. “Helping strangers, volunteering, and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world, reaching levels almost 25% above their pre-pandemic prevalence. This surge of benevolence, which was especially great for the helping of strangers, provides powerful evidence that people respond to help others in need, creating in the process more happiness for the beneficiaries, good examples for others to follow, and better lives for themselves.” The top ten happiest nations in the world were, in order, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel, and New Zealand. Following them were Austria, Australia, Ireland, Germany, and Canada. The United States rose from 19th place in 2021 to 16th in 2022. Israel, which ranked in ninth place, achieved its highest-ever ranking this
year, after rising from 14th place in 2020 to 12th in 2021. Guess which countries are the least happy? The ten lowest-ranking countries on the list were Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Lebanon. Afghanistan came in last place.
Zelensky Open to Talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he is ready to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but warned that if any negotiation attempts fail, it could mean the fight between the two countries would lead to “a third World War.” “I’m ready for negotiations with him.
I was ready for the last two years. And I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this war,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview on Sunday morning. “If there’s just 1% chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance. We need to do that. I can tell you about the result of this negotiations — in any case, we are losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground,” he said. He continued, “Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us. And we can demonstrate that the dignity of our people and our army that we are able to deal a powerful blow, we are able to strike back. But, unfortunately, our dignity is not going to preserve the lives. So, I think we have to use any format, any chance in order to have a possibility of negotiating, possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third World War.” Over the weekend, the Russian military claimed that it had launched a series of strikes on military targets in Ukraine employing hypersonic and cruise missiles on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Still, Russian forces have not managed to gain control over Ukraine’s airspace.
