Monday 4 April 2011

Happiness and the Pursuit of…Salt


Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are the three words that form the most recognisable cornerstone to the American Declaration of Independence, the very essence of Jeffersonian principle. I’ve always wondered how one manages to ‘pursue’ happiness, and what one does with it once the elusive little beastie is caught; but this is not the time raise quibbles, especially as the Chinese have now set out on the hunt.

Yes, indeed; last month the National People’s Congress added happiness as one of the commodities to be over-fulfilled in the next five year plan. But it has a special importance in the great scheme of things, more important, officials insist, than increasing GDP. The new plan has been greeted as a blueprint for a “happy China”, though Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, forgot to put on his happy face when he made the announcement, at least according to the report I read recently in The Economist.

Forget about the Liberty element of the equation – Harmony in the old Confucian style and Happiness in the new Communist style are the motors behind a fresh Great Leap Forward, to a world of happy grins and make-believe. Earlier this year officials in Guangdong province announced that it would become “Happy Guangdong”, responding to a cue from Beijing to the effect that the Glorious and Happy Chinese Communist Party wanted citizens to have “glorious and happy lives.” Seriously, I’m not making any of these phrases up!

I have no idea if Thomas Jefferson had an exact definition of happiness beyond the opportunity to lead a useful and fulfilling life, but you can be sure that the Chinese leadership does, a definition that does not include any unwelcome notions of freedom, or even free access to the internet, where the Great Firewall gets higher and Higher by the day, just in case people realise that they are not quite as happy as they should be, that happiness maximisation is falling far short of the quotas.

I can provide you with one small illustration of the problem – salt. Yes, salt. No sooner had Wen made his monumental announcement than the Chinese people were unhappy enough to begin a rush on salt stocks, a wave of panic-buying triggered by a rumour that the iodine in salt was an effective antidote to the potential radioactive fallout from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Official denials were issued. “It’s nonsense”, declared the government, with the result that the salt panic spread still further! People were observed leaving supermarkets, their baskets over-fulfilled with salt. When supplies ran out they turned to soy sauce and fermented bean curd for their saltiness.

So, I now know what happiness is in China and how one pursues it – just trot along to the local supermarket, hoping that salt has not been pursued out of existence. I imagine future statistics will reflect this sudden upsurge in the GHI – the Gross Happiness Index. Be happy, be Chinese, buy salt.

20 comments:

  1. not sure "pursuing happiness" is an intractable metaphor. it's just shorthand for attempting to maximize pleasurable states. also, wasn't the great irony of the salt rush the fact that it was started by internet tricksters?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It appears trust in government is fragile in the People's Republic. Their leaders haven't yet learned it is easier to fool most of the people most of the time if they believe they have free access to information.

    There was a time, as I'm sure you know, when salt was one of the world's most valuable commodities and control of the salt trade a jealously guarded prerogative of monarchs. One of the causes of the French Revolution was the disproportionate tax on salt and how that was collected . . .

    This Wiki article has some background to Jefferson's text:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just as long as they don't resort to licking sweat off of whatever?

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you are being radiated and don't have access to potassium -iodode for a measure of protection of the thyroid gland the one drop per quart of water of povidone-iodine (first aid antiseptic) may help. If in a dire situation I would Up the dosage a bit beacuse you are probably going to die anyway. Green tea daily helps to remove freeradicals from your system ,the real stuff not instant mix.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is ridiculously funny. i heard this "pursuit of salt". cannot believe it.

    i do believe lots of chinese people have already succeeded in pursuit happiness. freedom has never been a problem/issue for chinese people through all thousands years of history. and i think Lu Xun found the reason for that:
    http://humanwithoutgod.blogspot.com/2010/05/lu-xun.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happiness is a state of mind, usually an illusion.

    ReplyDelete
  7. E, yes I believe it was. I also know that as the panic subsided people tried to get their money back from the supermarkets.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Calvin, indeed it was, hence the expression ‘worth his salt’. I believe Roman soldiers received part of their pay in salt. And then there is Ghandi's famous salt march Thanks for the link to the ever dependable Wiki. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anthony, an illusion I do my best to sustain!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yun Yi, indeed so. I'm just about to pop over and have a look at your post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chlorella and kelp modofilan are also good detoxifiers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. So even a pinch of salt can cause a riot. A poignant metaphor for the benighted human race.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anthony, clearly something you have gone into in depth.

    ReplyDelete
  14. There is almost always a way out of a bad situation and knowing as many options as possible may make the difference.

    ReplyDelete
  15. "Earlier this year officials in Guangdong province announced that it would become “Happy Guangdong”, responding to a cue from Beijing to the effect that the Glorious and Happy Chinese Communist Party wanted citizens to have “glorious and happy lives.” Seriously, I’m not making any of these phrases up!"

    The prose is actually much more compelling in the original Chinese. I've studied Mandarin for 3 years in school. In particular, there is a lingual effect you do not find in English where verbs or descriptors of emotion are repeated to suggest excitement, ease, wise moderation or favorability, e.g. paopao (pinyin, a good run, from pao, a run) or haohao (happy or very good). Remember also that neither Mandarin Chinese nor any other Chinese language uses an alphabet. They use characters that communicate meaning (each word having its own) instead of letters that communicate sound. As a result, some things are effective in Chinese that sound perfectly stupid in their English translations.

    @Anthony: Sitting in a sauna for 10 minutes can help detoxify as well.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jeremy, that makes a lot of sense. It explains why some of Mao's writing sounds so crushingly banal, almost comic at points.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hey, it's really nice to see you. I hope all is well. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Well written. But pursuit of salt is actually a pursuit for happiness in some parts of the world except recent Japanese incident. In Timbuktu, if I remember correctly, it was even exchanged for gold! :)

    Keep going...buy more salt as long as it is cheap ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I think we probably have more than enough, Ankush. :-))

    ReplyDelete