Despite the ongoing violence plaguing the nation, economic hardship, large-scale demonstrations and anguish over the disappearance of 43 students, the denizens of Jalisco enjoy “high levels of happiness,” State Social Development Secretary Salvado Rizo Castelo said this week.
Talking at an international forum, Rizo Castelo said the parameters for defining happiness are not simply calculated by economic wellbeing.
Although public policy should aim to improve the living standards of citizens, wellbeing is subjective and, fortunately, Mexicans are generally happy people in spite of the many difficulties they face, he said.
The forum held in Guadalajara, titled Foro Internacional de Políticas de Bienestar y Desarrollo, attracted participants from 22 nations. The gathering was halted briefly by a small demonstration in support of the missing students from the Ayotzinapa teachers training school in Guerrero. Rizo Castelo said he was not at all irked by the interruption and said that peaceful demonstrations that put forward solutions are always acceptable in a democratic society.