It seems possible to measure happiness. There are even those who insist on it. The UN is not very successful in maintaining world peace, but it shows in an annual report how such a quality is distributed across the planet. It is basically a list, staggered from country to country, from which head to which tail, from the most blessed to the most unfortunate. The last one has been presented recently, corresponding to the year 2024. There's a little bit of everything in the conclusions and a little bit of impressionable. I am not surprised to learn that fourteen of the twenty happiest countries are European.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had the best place in the world to live in the old continent. There is no denying that we are in a position, in relation to the rest of the countries, in terms of well-being, social protection, steps towards equality or the general formal recognition of rights and freedoms.

But if we go into detail, we’re not that beautiful. Here too, social improvements have been hindered, economic inequality has been on the rise for a long time, and states and corporations almost always prevail over public freedoms, health and justice. Criminally petty to immigrants and ruthless predators to their homelands; sympathetic and versatile in the name of economics and geostrategy, in front of despots and murderers from somewhere else. Because Putin is a son of a bitch, but not all sons of a bitch are Putin.

All of this is part of the European way of life. All this also has to be seen with our exemplary well-being. With our happiness. Missiles from the United States, Russian oil, and Asian manufactures and relocations have done the rest.

Now that the pillars that helped to hold the building upright have begun to crack us, there are alarming sounds everywhere. Hey, we need to defend the European project, even with guns in hand.

I am not as sure as some of the other feathers of this week whether the owner of the Kremlin will be enough to overpower Ukraine. On the other hand, dreams, I do not think it is an absurdity to take advantage of a strong European army if it is an instrument to get rid of the military dependence of the United States. Even so, in addition to throwing away the spectre of the Russian bear danger, they will have to offer something more if our Heads of State wish to convince us that it is worth investing such money and such courage in defence of the supremacy of our way of life.

But who knows. I have just forgotten one fact: according to the UN report mentioned at the beginning, Israel is, from the time of Luxembourg, Canada or Switzerland, the eighth happiest country in the world.