‘Finland is the happiest country in the world’
Lund (Sweden), March 28: (The Conversation) Finland steadily ranks as the happiest country in the world. In March 2024 the country was, for the seventh year in a row, ranked as the happiness champion.
The ranking is based on one simple question, using a ladder metaphor, that is asked to people across nearly every country in the world. But my team’s new experimental study suggests that the ladder metaphor makes people think about power and wealth. Since 2005, the Gallup analytics organisation has worked to measure happiness across the entire planet.
The mission is particularly important as more and more governments say they are prioritising the wellbeing of their people. For example, all OECD countries now measure the happiness of their people including the UK. More than a decade ago, Bhutan declared that the primary goal of their government was “gross national happiness”, not gross domestic product. The world ranking is based on one simple but powerful question, called the Cantril Ladder: Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. (PTI)
Norwegians facing shortage of eggs
Helsinki, March 28: A shortage of eggs in shops during Holy Week has led Norwegians to flock to supermarkets across the border in Sweden and hoard the traditional Easter food. Norwegian news outlet Nettavisen said on Thursday that the Nordby shopping centre in Sweden, located just off the border about 100 kilometers south of Oslo, has been filled by “desperate” Norwegians trying stock up on eggs. The centre’s Maxi-Mat food store ran out of eggs Tuesday, while the adjacent Nordby Supermarket has had to limit the number of eggs purchased to three 20-packs per household, the news outlet reported. Not only are the Swedish stores better stocked with eggs, a traditional Easter treat needed for many dishes, but the product is also more affordable in Sweden, Nettavisen said. “It’s far cheaper than you get in Norway – if you can get eggs in Norway at all, that is,” Stale Lovheim, the head of the Nordby shopping centre, told Nettavisen. “The last time I was in Norway, the store was empty” of eggs.
A pack of 20 eggs in Sweden sells for a price equivalent to 39.90 Norwegian kroner (USD 3.70), about 30 per cent less than the price in Norway. (AP)
No joke: UK comedian told to remove hot dog from subway poster over junk food ban
London, March 28: On the London Underground, hot dogs are no joking matter.
Comedian Ed Gamble has been ordered to change a subway station poster campaign for his new StandUp show because the image of a hot dog violated the transit network’s ban on junk food advertising.
The poster for the show, “Hot Diggity Dog,” showed a mustard- and ketchup-smeared Gamble beside a half-eaten hot dog on a plate. A bemused Gamble replaced the wiener with a cucumber, and the poster was approved.
Gamble, who is diabetic and co-hosts the “Off Menu” food podcast, said he could see the point of the ad rules, which are intended to help curb obesity in children.
“But the new posters promote something way more harmful – the idea that cucumbers pair well with ketchup and mustard,” he said. Gamble isn’t complaining about the extra publicity the case has generated.
“The posters are making way beyond their value now,” he told the BBC on Thursday. (AP)
French lawmakers weighing bill banning hair discrimination
Paris, March 28: French lawmakers are debating a bill on Thursday that would ban discrimination over the texture, length, colour or style of someone’s hair.
Its authors hope the groundbreaking measure sends a message of support to Black people and others who have faced hostility in the workplace and beyond because of their hair.
“It’s about time,” exclaimed Estelle Vallois, a 43-year-old consultant getting her short, coiled hair cut in a Paris salon, where the hairdressers are trained to handle all types of hair – a rarity in France. “Today, we’re going even further toward taking down these barriers of discrimination.” The draft law echoes similar legislation in more than 20 US states. The bill was proposed by Olivier Serva, a French lawmaker from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, who says if passed it would make France the first country in the world to recognise discrimination based on hair at a national level.
The bill would amend existing anti-discrimination measures in the labour code and criminal code to explicitly outlaw discrimination against people with curly and coiled hair or other hairstyles perceived as unprofessional, as well as bald people. It does not specifically target race-based discrimination, though that was the primary motivation for the bill.
“People who don’t fit in Euro-centric standards are facing discrimination, stereotypes and bias,” Serva, who is Black, told The Associated Press.
The bill has a chance of passing in Thursday’s vote in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, because it is supported by members of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance and left-wing parties. But it has faced opposition from conservative and far-right lawmakers who see it as an effort to import US concepts about race and racial discrimination to France.
In the United States, 24 states have adopted a version of the CROWN Act – which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair – banning race-based hair discrimination in employment, housing, schools and in the military. Federal legislation passed in the House in 2022 but Senate Republicans blocked it a month later.
Opponents of the French bill say France’s legal framework already offers enough protection to people facing discrimination over their natural Afro hair, braids, cornrows or locs.
Authors of the bill disagree. One example they cite is a Black French steward who sued Air France after he was denied access to a flight because of his braids and was coerced into wearing a wig with straight hair. (AP)