ONE of the best. If we look as harshly at our own societies we see far more unhappiness.

By best cultures, you mean selling your daughters into prostitution in order to pay off your drinking, gambling and borrowing debts, right?

Or the yellow-red, rural-urban divide that sheds blood in the streets.

Or the masses who venerate their monks but seem to learn absolutely nothing from the religion, displaying all the deadly sins, and probably a few we haven’t thought of.

I think by “best cultures,” we mean “country with generally benign climate, attractive and available women, and where it doesn’t cost much to live.”

I love my wife of over four decades, who happens to be Thai, but I’m under no illusions she’s from “one of the best cultures on earth.” She agrees, apparently, often stating she’ll never go back to Thailand, even if I precede her in death.

Ah, I should delete this post. It’s more cynical than I think I really am.