The United Arab Emirates is to send dozens of officials abroad for five months of training in the science of happiness.
Sixty people have been chosen as the country’s first “chief happiness and positivity officers”, and will be heading overseas in September.
The trainees will undergo an “intense” study programme in the UK and U.S., the government says, with stints at Oxford University’s Mindfulness Centre and the Greater Good Science Centre at the renowned University of California, Berkeley.
Their training will all be focused on learning about happiness and how to spread it. The National newspaper has dubbed them “pioneers of positive thinking”.
Ohood Al Roumi took up the role of the first minister of state for happiness in February and says the new training programme is part of efforts to make it one of the happiest countries in the world.