(October 7, 2009) -- Sitting in the Caesar’s Palace casino at Las Vegas, bored and frustrated with all the restrictions and the absence of excitement, the suffocating smoke and the irksome happy faces caused my jaw to drop to the basement of the casino. Even in one of the so-called “happiest cities” of the world, I was not experiencing happiness at a satisfying extent. I have seen many articles on the Internet that claim certain cities to be the “happiest” places on Earth.

The authors’ irrational, generalized and simplistic perception of happiness amazes me. There are many issues that come into question by just using the phrase “the happiest city on Earth.” First and foremost, how is happiness defined? The concept that some individuals fail to understand is that happiness has an infinite number of meanings because we are human beings - we differ from one another.

If someone has the audacity to say that a certain city is one of the happiest places in the world, then he is regarding the situation in a highly simplistic manner. If Glendale does not have an ostentatious opera house such as Sydney or if there is no Eiffel Tower in L.A., it does not make Glendale less “happy” than some well-known cities. From a tourist’s point of view, European cities look marvelous because tourists usually tend to look at the outside of the fruit.

If they start peeling it off, they will start finding some rotten parts. I am sure the freedom given toward illegal drugs in Amsterdam is not such a delightful fact for a responsible parent.

Every place in the world has both good and bad characteristics, and sometimes those bad characteristics create an unhappy environment for some people. Perhaps there is not as much animation and excitement in Glendale as in Paris, but Glendale is an exceptionally safe place compared to some European cities. Some places in Europe are notorious for trafficking people.

The cigarette vending machines and children smoking narcotics that I witnessed in Vienna made me question the happiness in that city. Are these points some of the contributing factors to the exceptional happiness in certain European cities?

I wonder if the authors also include the poor areas of the city in their ill-judged claim. There are those who are homeless, have no education and no job. There are those with untreatable illnesses, people with huge amounts of debts, etc. Are all those people happy even in the “happiest” cities of the world?

We all know how great Sydney, London, Las Vegas, Paris and New York look, but why put unrealistic qualities on them such as “the happiest cities?” Our society is congested with corruption and rotten aspects that do not make such a utopian quality a suitable title for an entire city.. Every place in the world has its own specialties.

However, I believe that one should never make a generalization that bold and untrue about a city since happiness is not a stable factor and it is never present in every corner of a city.