Gross National Happiness could work for Thailand too

I laud Bhutan for the development it has achieved with its Gross National Happiness (GNH) approach, which focuses on the economy but not at the expense of social well-being.
Bhutan has not rejected the drive for economic growth, but has harnessed it to a balanced and holistic approach that emphasises the basic human value of happiness as the ultimate goal.
GNH is part of a new socio-economic development model that offers lessons for other countries around the world, which could adapt it to suit their own conditions. Although Bhutan can’t yet claim GNH has been a total success, early signs are promising, with tangible gains such as increased forest cover and national parks.
So it is regrettable that, although GNH has been talked about in Thailand for the past decade, its lessons haven’t been learned here. We still expect and demand high economic growth, but it comes at the hidden cost of degradation of natural resources, environmental pollution, risks to the quality of life, broken families, the use of violence to solve life’s problems, and so on.
Perhaps it’s time Thailand adopted GNH as a measure of people’s well-being and as part of a drive toward genuine development as well as high economic growth. We could use it to encourage alternatives to our current growth model and its attendant suffering and thereby secure sustainable happiness for the majority.
Sutipunt Bongsununt