I won't even attempt to answer these 'big' questions, I will just reflect upon some things I observed and experienced in South Africa about these issues.

At the beginning of my stay in South Africa, every day when driving to Khayelitsha and passing the townships along the highway and seeing the miserable living conditions, I felt extreme pity for the people living there. By the end of my stay, still passing the shacks every day and having seen them up close and even been inside a few, my feelings had changed - I did not pity the people any more, for the reasons I will attempt to give below. (Of course, this does not mean that building new houses for the people in townships should not be considered an issue of priority by the government - obviously, the people need decent housing to replace the shacks and squatter camps, and they need it as fast as possible).

What I experienced throughout my stay in South Africa and in Khayelitsha was the extraordinary joy of life, energy, the feeling of hope and other strong emotions people had, unlike anything I've experienced in Estonia (and in Europe) where people many people are not really happy.

In terms of material things, the Western welfare societies have much more than developing countries - we have decent houses, cars, money etc - our basic needs for survival are well satisfied, thus we no longer need to worry about that, what is becoming more and more important now is the quality of our lives. In Africa though, most people still cannot go beyond trying to cover their basic needs, such as food, shelter, health and safety. However, in South Africa, one of the most developed countries on the African continent, things are not so bad. Generally, even the poorest people have enough food, they are not starving, are relatively healthy and they have at least some shelter, altough the question of housing is a burning issue in South Africa especially when considering the contrast between the living conditions of the rich (mostly white) and poor (mostly black). As a legacy of apartheid, the nicest areas of the country are still occupied by wealthy whites. I observed startling constrasts in Cape Town - the nice beach areas are inhabited by white people living in their huge luxury villas surrounded by gates, bars and alarm systems, while just a 20 minute drive on the highway out of Cape Town reveals a totally different picture - here are the huge sprawling townships inhabited by black Africans, who are mostly living in shacks. These people do not own hardly anything. Yet, based on my contact with them and my observations, I became convinced that they are generally happier than most of us in Europe. Why is it so? What makes people happy then?

Obviously, there are many factors that contribute to the overall extent of happiness of each individual as well as to the happiness of a group of people or the whole society in general, but I believe that there are two main reasons.

First and foremost, I believe that there is the strong sense of community among black South Africans, the sense of belonging and support from the community that each individual feels and what keeps him/her strong and makes it easier to face the challenges of life. People are open, warm, close and sincere to each other. In contrast, we are much more individualistic in the western culture, thinking first and foremost of our own needs and well-being. In the Estonian society, things are even worse - on top of not caring about others, people are also jealous of each other's success and achievements. I believe that this lack of caring and being inconsiderate towards each other in our society is one of the reasons why Estonia has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The worst thing is that the Estonians know about these problems but make no effort to change anything!

Another thing which definitely contributes to the general feeling of happiness in people (and this is now something we (northern) Europeans cannot do anything about!) has to do with the climate and weather. More specifically, it has to do with the amount of sunlight different areas receive. Obviously, on average South Africa receives much more sunlight than Europe, especially Estonia, where during the autumn and winter we rarely see the sun at all - the sky is constantly grey. I believe that this is a very important factor affecting people's mood and general temperament. In addition, the average temperatures also matter a great deal. The climate in South Africa is of course much warmer than in Northern Europe. Sunlight and warmth undoubtedly affect people's mood and behaviour - Estonians become much more open and friendly towards each other in the summer - the transformation is remarkable! When the cold season approaches again, we change back. I am convinced that the reason for the reserved character of Estonians is a direct result of the effect of our climate on us.

In conclusion, owning things does not make people happy - the people in Africa don't have a lot, but generally, despite the hardships they have to face every day, they are much happier than we in the Western culture.