Journeys with Emily Davidow

Design*Sponge covers Wellington, New Zealand, the best little capital city in the world, with a great guide to fashion, restaurants and cafes, bars and restaurants.

Yeshey Dorji’s stunning photography highlights Bhutan’s unique flora, birds and culture. Subscribe to his blog Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon for a regular dose of happiness!

“I celebrate the beauty and the uniqueness of our country – Bhutan. The images posted here are my personal bests – either for their spontaneity, richness of color or simply because they represent a part of our culture and tradition that is slowly being obliterated in the name of modernization and efficiency.” — Yeshey Dorji

by Dan Austin from 88 Bikes in Peru

Excerpt from Pop!Tech blog post by Dan Austin of 88 Bikes: “The Moment of Happy”

Happiness. You can’t measure it, you can’t put it on a graph, but you can see it. Oh, can you see it. And you can feel it, too. Many of the kids who received bikes in Uganda had been former child soldiers; some had watched both parents die of HIV. Many of the girls who received bikes in India and Nepal were survivors of unimaginable abuse as sex slaves. But even in these cases, where the kids were more subdued, their understated happiness was just as evident as that of the rambunctious kids in Phnom Penh who got up at 5 a.m. the day after the Moment of Happy to ride their bikes around the center, rousing the orphanage staff with a symphony of little bike bells…

During all these travels (including 17 countries, 2 1/2 months on the road and 12 endowment sites on our just-finished Project FOUR), a thought keeps echoing in my mind: is our ignorance in addressing the desire and need for happiness for all people at the root of poverty’s pervasive grip? Despite clear research from Jeffrey Sachs and other economists that, comparatively speaking, it wouldn’t require that much to lift the caul of poverty for most; despite millions of NGOs, billions of dollars and countless courageous individuals, poverty remains, unabated.

But it makes sense: it’s difficult to get excited—and generous—about simply sustaining someone. We want to see our fellow human beings do better than languish; we want to see them progress and find fulfillment in their lives.

Perhaps if happiness were embraced as a need on par with food, shelter, water, love—the tide would turn. Not because happiness in and of itself can drill a well or sow corn or turn back climate change—but because making people happy is a mission a whole lot more transcendent and enjoyable than just keeping them alive.

Perhaps all this time the bar hasn’t been raised too high—but too low.

The 88Bikes Foundation has a very simple goal: to provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries, in situations where these children have been challenged to be their own heroes due to war, conflict, poverty, disease, or other regional hardships.