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If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! *clap clap*
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! *clap clap*


If that is the case then there should be applause ringing out from Denmark these days, as it is crowned the happiest country in the world.

The Danes often come out on top in happiness surveys, but the long-term data from this one proves that they are the most content nation without a doubt.

The data from the World Values Survey at the University of Michigan covers 97 countries and was collected over the last 17 years. Fifty-two countries on the list have happiness results from as far back as 1981, Denmark included.

The survey is an accumulation of surveys over the period, in which a total of 350,000 people were questioned. The survey will appear in the July 2008 issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Researchers asked the same two questions over the years: "Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?

The old saying, 'Money can't buy happiness' is certainly true in this case. Researchers found that economic growth in a country did not automatically improve the mood of the people.

'If economic growth is not accompanied by social security and a healthy social environment where the citizen feel that they can trust the authorities, then the growth can be a stress factor,' Jan Dehley, a sociology professor with the project, told Politiken newspaper.

He said that Denmark was at the top of the table because it has combined social security with economic growth for a long time.

The study found that the level of happiness has increased in general around the world. A happiness index created from the survey results found that 40 out of the 52 countries have seen an increase in happiness. Researchers think that this could be due to more peaceful, stabile societies over the years.

If you're happy and you know it,
Then your face will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it,
Clap your hands. *clap clap*

Half a million children will be left without daycare starting on Tuesday unless an 11th hour solution can be found to the month-long teachers strike.

KL, the national association of local councils, has announced that it will begin a lockout of daycare teachers in all 98 of the country's municipalities after teachers union BUPL refused to resume negotiations on Tuesday.

Daycare teachers in 15 municipalities went on strike on May 19th after its members voted against a contract that would have increased their pay by 12.8 percent over the next three years.

Mads Lebech, lead negotiator for KL, said a lockout was the start of a war of attrition aimed at breaking the unions. Teachers receive partial pay from their union during the strike, and Lebech said KL was willing to wait until union coffers had run dry.

Labour relations experts suggest that, unlike in the case of the nurses strike, the government may step in to end the teachers strike. The government has refused to that so far, since the strike is legal. Our government will go on summer holiday on Friday, so it will be interesting if they do something before they leave.

Nurses, midwives and lab technicians are currently in their eighth week of a walkout. They have refused to budge from their demand of a 15 percent raise over the next three years. I haven't heard the latest number of cancelled operations, but it's a ridiculously large number.

A chimneysweep heard cries for help coming from the house whose chimney he was cleaning in the town of Glamsbjerg on Funen island. He hurriedly made an emergency call to the police to get help to the person in need.

The police officers arrived and forced the door open. And they found... a parrot on its perch, still crying for help.

Can you imagine the look on the policemens faces?