The World Happiness Report was recently released, ranking countries based on happiness.

Singapore fell four spots in the latest rankings, finishing 26th.

Which was quite good, in fact, as we are technically the happiest in Asia.

Most of us just shrugged and carried on with our 26th happiest lives.

Not Douglas Chua Hock Chye though.

He shook his head, possibly tutted a few times, and began writing perhaps the most ironic forum letter of all time to Today -- which was tinged with a bit of unhappiness.

Why is Singapore not the happiest country in the world?

That isn't us embellishing his words, or engaging in hyperbole.

This is his very first sentence.

"I am surprised that Singapore is not the happiest country in the world."

You can read his entire letter here.

But here is a summation of his points.

- We have high GDP per capita, why aren't we happiest?

- We have high life expectancy, why aren't we the happiest?

- We don't have corruption in our government, why aren't we the happiest?

- Freedom is subjective, people shouldn't use it as a measuring scale, why aren't we the happiest?

- We have a multi-racial, multi-religious society, why aren't we the happiest?

He ended with this perplexing statement.

And if it also gives us happiness, longevity, progress and prosperity, then Singaporeans should be proud to say that we are the happiest country, regardless of our ranking by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Why aren't we the happiest?

There are, of course, statistics to throw his assertion into question.

We could bring up the rather expensive lifestyle, or high population density, or general stress enveloping Singaporeans that perhaps lower our situation in a few of the six criteria being judged.

But, we will just point this out.

If we are bothered enough to complain, and write letters, because we weren't first in a report on how happy/ contented we are, perhaps we don't deserve that title just yet.

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