Fledgling Democracies

Global Voices Online reports that bloggers in Uzbekistan have spent the last couple weeks questioning the logic of its leaders, whose over-the-top zeal for change is seen by some as cause for alarm.

The new government in the former Soviet republic has renamed streets and squares, dismantled monuments, changed the alphabet and even adjusted the calendar to cleanse it if of celebrations linked to Soviet times.

One blogger on neweurasia.net sees it this way:

I look at the calendar and I’m really surprised to see the governments trying to change the history and eradicate the memory of the past… The Labor Day, May 1, that used to be widely celebrated [in Soviet times], is totally forgotten in the country. However, those citizens, who lived during the Soviet time, still remember this day…

It’s an interesting quandary: at what point does well-intentioned change start to resemble unhealthy denial of a country’s difficult history?

The folks at the World Database of Happiness recently ranked 95 nations on a happiness scale, asking people to rate how happy they are between 1 (least happy) and 10 (most happy).

Unsurprisingly, Denmark and Switzerland topped the list with ratings of 8.1, while dreary former Soviet republic Moldova came in dead last, managing only a 3.5 rating.

Commentary by Forbes notes that per capita income in the former Soviet republic comes in at a measly $880 per year. We all know money can’t buy happiness, but such a severe shortage of it certainly doesn’t help.

Belarus, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are other former Soviet republics which keep Moldova company near the very bottom of the list.

Just FYI, Americans reported an average happiness rating of 7.3, giving us the 17th spot.