Measuring global pain
As measuring global happiness proves difficult due to the subjectivity of the term
The writer is an Islamabad-based TV journalist and tweets @FarrukhKPitafi
When on April 6 this year, I wrote about the need to measure global pain in my piece titled “Measuring the Wrong Quantity”, it was an update on my eight year old position. In 2011, I had argued that the Bhutanese government’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) index be adopted as the blue print for a World Happiness Index. It was. This year I argued that measuring happiness was proving difficult because like the subjectivity of the term happiness itself, the index was failing to generate actionable data. For instance, even if the index grades regions and countries around the world to see who is happier and who is not, how could one tailor targeted policy interventions to reduce the level of unhappiness? And how would one identify the sources of unhappiness?
Granted that, the Gallup World Poll which now contributes to the World Happiness Report seeks to measure 14 components that might contribute to the overall happiness. Some of the components are diversity, education and families, emotions (well-being), environment and energy, food and shelter, government and politics, law and order, health, religion and ethics, transportation, work, business and economics, citizen engagement, communications and technology. An exhaustive list, right? But can we be sure that even after getting access to all these elements a citizen will be truly happy? Apparently not. In my update this year, my key position was that measuring a more appropriate quantity could produce more actionable results. Namely, global pain. Today I double down on that argument.
But first some disambiguation is in order. In 2017, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) sponsored a study titled “Global Pain Index” comprising 19,008 interviews from 32 countries. The scope of the study was impressive. However, it was restricted to a study of body pains. Although highly important in its own right this is not what we are discussing here today. Health issues amount only to one contributing factor and add to your general distress. There are many others.
While the signs were rapidly growing, the biggest wake-up call and a proof of the World Happiness Index came with the surprise victory of Donald Trump. As if an afterthought on cue studies, reports and books started emerging on the reasons that might have contributed to the shock win. They were mainly about the unmeasured pain of a forgotten people. President Obama might have managed to bring down the number of unemployed people in an hour of economic trouble, but he could do a lot less in containing the spectre of underemployment. Consider yourself working in the same office and the same position for a significant period — let us say a decade — without any serious pay raise. Meanwhile, inflation continues to wreak havoc with your life. Your rent, utility bills, children’s fees, healthcare, and cost of living continue to hike but your ability to meet these expenses remains where it was. You are either supposed to look for a better paying job (which is in short supply in a bad economy) or then you take an additional job. Technically you are not unemployed but less value for your time and skillset means that you barely make it. In the US, another complicating factor is that of student debt.
Another shocking example is that of India. Recent research reports show that India was misreporting or at least miscalculating its GDP numbers for the better part of this decade. If this was resulting in widespread distress, the news was not reaching us. As the outcome of an incredibly suicidal demonetisation campaign has shown recently, the pain threshold of the Indian people is immense. But that does not mean there were no signs. Great pain skews your choices. In the presence of an immensely dishonest television media when wrong people and causes are accused of your growing suffering, you allow yourself to be radicalised. The result? Modi government in 2014 and 2019.
To bolster our case further we need to dwell upon another serious example, that of conflict zones. The amount of pain and suffering a war brings is seldom self-evident at the very start. But a war ravages a lot. But this is where the happiness index breaks down. How do you measure happiness of someone whose world has been turned upside down? You can measure their pain. Measuring the collective pain of a community or a country can identify the potential hotspots of conflicts. And even after a conflict, this exercise can produce results to help understand how pain among survivors can lead to their radicalisation. And do not stop just there. When these people are forced to take refuge in other countries the pain of unplanned change can radicalise the host countries too. Is it not what we have witnessed in Europe and other parts of the West in recent years?
Denial is human nature. Your mind often filters out distressing images and news reports. Policymakers are human too. That is exactly why such big numbers of their constituents get ignored. But as various studies into public responses of negative and positive media coverage of issues have already found out, while positive news reports often produce complacency among the audience, negative reports propel viewers into action. Measuring human suffering through a pain index and producing reports for public awareness can sensitise policymakers to the gravity of the situation and compel them to adjust their policies accordingly.
Despite many political failures of the United Nations, I have argued for long that the work of this great body should be judged not through the political outcomes but its apolitical work. It’s mostly apolitical branches like the UNDP, WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF, and UNESCO do a lot in trying to improve human conditions around the world. Only a world benighted by political selfishness can ignore such a great work. But these organisations still do not seem to have comprehended the nature and challenges that approaching population bottlenecks represent. These changes will perhaps come slowly at the start but the worst damage is done when change is imperceptible. Automation is rendering many jobs and related skillsets obsolete even now. Consider the possibility when within a decade it takes most jobs. Similarly, environmental catastrophes are already costing people their homes and lives. Think about a day when it all starts accelerating.
I understand that the first answer to these problems must be to find solutions. But governments and INGOs both do themselves a great disservice by restricting this quest to themselves. Without mobilising intellectual capital around the world and in all walks of life you cannot hope to get the desired solutions. Measuring pain and sharing the findings both on a macro and micro level with the people around the world can really help.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2019.
Granted that, the Gallup World Poll which now contributes to the World Happiness Report seeks to measure 14 components that might contribute to the overall happiness. Some of the components are diversity, education and families, emotions (well-being), environment and energy, food and shelter, government and politics, law and order, health, religion and ethics, transportation, work, business and economics, citizen engagement, communications and technology. An exhaustive list, right? But can we be sure that even after getting access to all these elements a citizen will be truly happy? Apparently not. In my update this year, my key position was that measuring a more appropriate quantity could produce more actionable results. Namely, global pain. Today I double down on that argument.
But first some disambiguation is in order. In 2017, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) sponsored a study titled “Global Pain Index” comprising 19,008 interviews from 32 countries. The scope of the study was impressive. However, it was restricted to a study of body pains. Although highly important in its own right this is not what we are discussing here today. Health issues amount only to one contributing factor and add to your general distress. There are many others.
While the signs were rapidly growing, the biggest wake-up call and a proof of the World Happiness Index came with the surprise victory of Donald Trump. As if an afterthought on cue studies, reports and books started emerging on the reasons that might have contributed to the shock win. They were mainly about the unmeasured pain of a forgotten people. President Obama might have managed to bring down the number of unemployed people in an hour of economic trouble, but he could do a lot less in containing the spectre of underemployment. Consider yourself working in the same office and the same position for a significant period — let us say a decade — without any serious pay raise. Meanwhile, inflation continues to wreak havoc with your life. Your rent, utility bills, children’s fees, healthcare, and cost of living continue to hike but your ability to meet these expenses remains where it was. You are either supposed to look for a better paying job (which is in short supply in a bad economy) or then you take an additional job. Technically you are not unemployed but less value for your time and skillset means that you barely make it. In the US, another complicating factor is that of student debt.
Another shocking example is that of India. Recent research reports show that India was misreporting or at least miscalculating its GDP numbers for the better part of this decade. If this was resulting in widespread distress, the news was not reaching us. As the outcome of an incredibly suicidal demonetisation campaign has shown recently, the pain threshold of the Indian people is immense. But that does not mean there were no signs. Great pain skews your choices. In the presence of an immensely dishonest television media when wrong people and causes are accused of your growing suffering, you allow yourself to be radicalised. The result? Modi government in 2014 and 2019.
To bolster our case further we need to dwell upon another serious example, that of conflict zones. The amount of pain and suffering a war brings is seldom self-evident at the very start. But a war ravages a lot. But this is where the happiness index breaks down. How do you measure happiness of someone whose world has been turned upside down? You can measure their pain. Measuring the collective pain of a community or a country can identify the potential hotspots of conflicts. And even after a conflict, this exercise can produce results to help understand how pain among survivors can lead to their radicalisation. And do not stop just there. When these people are forced to take refuge in other countries the pain of unplanned change can radicalise the host countries too. Is it not what we have witnessed in Europe and other parts of the West in recent years?
Denial is human nature. Your mind often filters out distressing images and news reports. Policymakers are human too. That is exactly why such big numbers of their constituents get ignored. But as various studies into public responses of negative and positive media coverage of issues have already found out, while positive news reports often produce complacency among the audience, negative reports propel viewers into action. Measuring human suffering through a pain index and producing reports for public awareness can sensitise policymakers to the gravity of the situation and compel them to adjust their policies accordingly.
Despite many political failures of the United Nations, I have argued for long that the work of this great body should be judged not through the political outcomes but its apolitical work. It’s mostly apolitical branches like the UNDP, WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF, and UNESCO do a lot in trying to improve human conditions around the world. Only a world benighted by political selfishness can ignore such a great work. But these organisations still do not seem to have comprehended the nature and challenges that approaching population bottlenecks represent. These changes will perhaps come slowly at the start but the worst damage is done when change is imperceptible. Automation is rendering many jobs and related skillsets obsolete even now. Consider the possibility when within a decade it takes most jobs. Similarly, environmental catastrophes are already costing people their homes and lives. Think about a day when it all starts accelerating.
I understand that the first answer to these problems must be to find solutions. But governments and INGOs both do themselves a great disservice by restricting this quest to themselves. Without mobilising intellectual capital around the world and in all walks of life you cannot hope to get the desired solutions. Measuring pain and sharing the findings both on a macro and micro level with the people around the world can really help.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2019.