Qatar: Happiness is a Winning Lottery Ticket

A follower of Wahhabism

An aerial shot of Qatar

The second I stepped outside of the airport, I was struck with how astonishingly hot the thick air outside felt against my skin. I cannot imagine how all the women who follow Wahhabism can manage to cover themselves from head to toe all the time. But I failed to ponder the thought for long, for I felt overwhelmed hearing the various tongues of Tagalong, Tamil, and an off duty soldier with a thick New Jersey accent pounding in my jetlagged ears. Now, I would like you to imagine you just won the lottery. After you go in and quit your job you realize it is time to decide how you will disperse you new found wealth. You do not want to be selfish, so you’ll give a little to buy your dad a sports car. Maybe you’ll donate some amount to a charity you’re passionate about. You know you need to be a responsible adult so you’ll invest a portion of your winnings. Eventually you’ll start to work again, possibly part-time on Thursdays. The bottom-line is if you were to win the lottery you’d feel safe, happy even. Well, Qatar won the oil and gas lottery. Now citizens of Qatar enjoy indulging in various luxuries and hiring lifelong servants for themselves. So, since Qatar has all the money it could ever need, it must therefore be happy. Not so fast, studies have proven that after lottery winners hit a high, they quickly return to the same level of happiness they were at before. This is due to the fact that events that were once enjoyable are no longer exciting and just normal.


This is a video explaining the negative effects of the oil lottery Qatar has won.