It's always a pleasure to delve into the characteristics that make Scandinavians stand out. My wife, Zarina and I have heard about the striking balance between work and life or their incredible design sensitivity. We found really fascinating during the chat with Datin Niki, spouse of the late Ambassador Dato' Dr. Mohd Yusof Ahmad who had served Malaysia as Head of Mission at these Scandinavian countries. They are renowned for their strong sense of community and egalitarian values with impressive friendly culture.
The Scandinavian region consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, as well as the Faroe Islands, Greenland & Aland. Niki said, “While there are differences among the Nordic countries, they have some common traits and all share a broad commitment to social cohesion, a universal nature of welfare provision in order to safeguard individualism by providing protection for vulnerable individuals & groups in society, maximising public participation in social decision by strong emphasis on public services.”
Niki added, “Scandinavian citizens experience a high sense of autonomy and freedom, as well as high levels of social trust towards each other, which play an important role in determining life satisfaction. Well, it is easier to build welfare societies in small and homogenous countries compared to larger and more diverse multi-religious countries.”
I understand from 2013 until today, every time the World Happiness Report (WHR) has published its annual ranking of countries, the five Scandinavian countries - Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland - have all been in the top ten in the list. No matter whether we look at the state of democracy and political rights, lack of corruption, trust between citizens, felt safety, social cohesion, gender equality, distribution of incomes, Human Development Index, they are in the global top spots.
In the WHR, I found that the quality of institutions plays a key role in ensuring citizen happiness. On the cultural level, the most important factor is to generate a sense of community, trust, and social cohesion among citizens. Thus, institutionally, building trustworthy to serve citizens' well-being and happiness are truly the goals of government.
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