Harmony vs Happiness

One might surmise that harmony equals happiness, or vice versa. Not necessarily so, evidently. China has turned itself away from attentive striving for harmony among its vast population. A population that has miraculously seen a seismic shift from the intolerable and seemingly incurable indigence of the masses, to an emergence of a middle class, an extremely wealthy class, and a smaller, albeit still huge poverty-stricken class.

Aside from the economic success of this giant producer of just about anything that can be produced, manufactured and shipped abroad, the country and its administration has had to grapple with environmental issues largely resulting as a fall-out of its giant strides in manufacturing with coal-fired furnaces smothering the atmosphere in carbon emissions, causing no end of medical-health problems to the people living in a myriad of huge metropolises.

There has been, over the past several decades, an immense shift in population from the traditional countryside and marginal agricultural pursuits to the cities hosting tens of millions of people, seeking improved-remunerated acknowledgements of their work efforts, but those people too live in near-poverty as the working poor. The price of basic foodstuffs has increased world wide, but China maintains a healthy stockpile of grains, far more than required, but as insurance.

Still, the rising costs of basic foods and energy and other consumer goods understandably piques the anger of people whose income is too slender for financial comfort, and they become restive. And there are others in that vast population of clever minds and nimble fingers who believe that there are better systems of political governance and they would like to effect change. The Chinese Politburo is not fond of these people who agitate and create chaos when order is sought.

Order, as in 'harmony'. 'Harmony' as in a population content with their lot. Except, they are not. The government has been kept busy putting down protests that pop up here and there across that great land with irritatingly repetitive determination. And because many Chinese are Internet savvy and connected with the use of electronic devices, inclusive of cellphones they have become aware of the shocking events taking place elsewhere in the world where people labour under firm autocracies.

And where mass street protests have resulted in the unravelling of years of dictatorships. People having become enamoured of the vision of themselves freed from tyranny, becoming part of a great democracy which would automatically bring them the employment that has been eluding them for far too long. For just like the bulging youth populations in the Muslim world, China too grapples with the incessant headache of young people setting out to find their fortunes and finding instead years of frustrating unemployment.

Giving the Government of China one huge headache of anticipatory non-harmony. But the solution is close at hand. The poor who agitate for a fairer distribution of the country's vast wealth and earnings, looking on enviously at the easy grace of living that their wealthy counterparts have inherited pose as an incipient revolutionary problem. Led, needless to say, by idealistic young academics and university students eager to bring 'freedom' and 'democracy' to fruition in a country traditionally allergic to it.

Systemic corruption, endemic poverty, immense income gaps, inadequate housing, rising food prices, environmental health hazards and lack of regulatory oversight in the production of chemical-tampered food and lead-laced baby products are some of the grievances. And the solution is right at hand. The elders of the political elite of the Government of China have come to the brilliant conclusion that the required element to satisfy its people is a good dose of happiness.

All government officials at every level now have the responsibility to ensure that the people are happy. They will henceforth be judged on the quality of their work which will be easy enough to quantify, for their job henceforth is to go forth and ensure that they are able to "make people happy". The National People's Congress has so decreed. And so be it.

China, where harmony and happiness are national attributes.