PART.01
幸福“陶”不掉：立陶宛年轻一代幸福指数达世界之最
In the shade of a tree on a warm day in Vilnius, Lithuania, the happiest twentysomethings in the world are having the coffee. Given the weather (perfect) and the beverage (cheap), it is hard to feel anything but happy. It is harder still if, like 23-year-old Simona Jurkuvenaite, you have just been handed €21,000 from the Lithuanian government to direct your debut short film about the country’s teenagers.
在立陶宛维尔纽斯温暖的一天，世界上最快乐的二十多岁的年轻人正在一起喝咖啡。天气（完美），饮料（便宜），很难让人不感到快乐。如果你像 23 岁的西蒙娜·尤尔库维纳伊特（Simona Jurkuvenaite）一样，刚刚从立陶宛政府获得 2.1 万欧元（约合人民币 16.3 万元）的资助，执导自己的首部关于立陶宛青少年的短片，那就更快乐了。
So good are the opportunities and so high is the level of optimism that Lithuania topped this year's World Happiness Report rankings for the under-30s. The country’s gen-Zers and millennials rated themselves 7.76 out of 10 on the happiness scale, miles ahead of the UK and the US, at 32nd and 62nd respectively.
机会如此之多，乐观程度如此之高，以至于立陶宛在今年 30 岁以下人群的《世界幸福报告》*中排名第一。该国的 Z 世代和千禧一代给自己的幸福指数打了 7.76 分(满分为 10 分)，远远领先分别排在第 32 位和第 62 位的英国和美国。
译注：不久前的国际幸福日——3月20日，联合国发布了《2024年世界幸福报告》(World Happiness Report)。《世界幸福报告》由联合国领衔，以美国盖洛普公司数据为基础，牛津大学团队负责分析结果。
2021-2023年年轻（30岁以下）幸福感排名
（图源《世界幸福报告》中国排名第79）
In a world often overwhelmed by chaos and despair, a beacon of hope emerges from the Baltic state of Lithuania. Despite Lithuania’s overall ranking at a respectable 19th position, the under-30 demographic emerges as the undisputed epitome of happiness in 2024, showcasing the resilience and exuberance of the nation’s young populace.
在这个经常被混乱和绝望淹没的世界上，波罗的海国家立陶宛燃起了希望的灯塔。尽管立陶宛的总体排名为第 19 位，但它的 30 岁以下人口在 2024 年无可争议地成为幸福的缩影，展示了立陶宛年轻人的韧性和活力。
PART.02
为什么立陶宛的年轻一代如此幸福？
01
免费上大学，就业无压力
02
做自己想做的，
每个人都有成功的可能
03
政局稳定 远离动荡
（1）免费上大学，就业无压力
这个前苏联国家的人均 GDP 翻了两番多，立陶宛新兴的科技行业出口产品中包括独角兽企业 Vinted 和 Nord Security，去年该国的平均总收入增长了 12.6%。大多数学生都能免费上大学，57% 的人口受过高等教育（欧盟平均水平为 43%）。
“I actually like it here,” says Jurkuvenaite’s friend Gantas Bendikas almost apologetically. The 23-year-old is about to graduate with no debt and, by his own admission, no anxieties about the labour market.
尤尔库维纳伊特的朋友甘塔斯·本迪卡斯（Gantas Bendikas）近乎歉意地说：“我确实很喜欢这里。”这位 23 岁的年轻人即将毕业，没有任何债务，而且他自己也承认，他对劳动力市场并不感到焦虑。
Granted, it is not the most exciting place in the world: Jurkuvenaite complains that it “can be a little boring” and Bendikas says he is keen to see other countries before ultimately settling down here.
当然，这里并不是世界上最令人兴奋的地方：尤尔库维纳伊特抱怨说，这里 “可能有点无聊”；本迪卡斯也说，他在最终定居于此之前很想看看其他国家。
And the Vilnius tourist board is jocularly self-aware in branding the country “the G-spot of Europe” because “nobody knows where it is”. (A 2019 survey found that only 5% of Britons knew more than the Lithuanian capital’s name and approximate location.)
维尔纽斯旅游局自嘲称称立陶宛是“欧洲的 G 点”，因为 “没人知道它在哪里”。(2019 年的一项调查发现，只有 5% 的英国人只知道立陶宛首都的名字和大致位置）。
But against a backdrop of general election mudslinging, pervasive student debt and a housing crisis in the UK, the young will take boring. Drinking a decent cup of coffee in the sun and eating a flaky pastry that didn’t cost an hour’s work on minimum wage – yes, this will do.
但在英国大选泥沙俱下、学生债台高筑、住房危机四伏的背景下，立陶宛的年轻人还是会选择有点无聊的生活。在阳光下喝上一杯像样的咖啡，吃上一块薄薄的糕点，价格还不到最低标准的一个小时工资。是的，这就够了。
（2）做自己想做的，每个人都有成功的可能
在城市的另一边，曾经的 Lukiškės 监狱，一座建于 1905 年的杂乱的监狱被改造成了艺术家工作室和音乐会场地的综合体。“当我和其他地方（巴黎、东京、伦敦）的朋友聊天时，我意识到有自己的工作空间是多么幸运，”28 岁的艺术家 Jolita Vaitkutnik 说到，光从她三楼工作室的高窗倾泻而下，折射在她的脸上。
“I choose to be here because I like it here,” she says. “I don’t have to do work that I don’t want to do and I don’t have to work in an office.”
“我选择在这里是因为我喜欢这里。”她说，“我不必做自己不想做的工作，也不必在办公室里工作。”
“I would say that every person who works well can live well here,” says film-maker Marija Kavtaradzė, the 33-year-old, who is just releasing her second feature, Slow. “Of course, if you are a creative and you work in culture instead of a startup, you will make less money – that’s a fact. But there is this feeling that you can still make it here.”
“我想说，每一个工作出色的人都能在这里生活得很好。”33 岁的电影制作人Marija Kavtaradzė 说道，她刚刚发布了她的第二部故事片《慢》。“当然，如果你是一个有创造力的人，你在文化而不是创业中工作，你会赚更少的钱——这是事实。但总有一种感觉，你仍然可以在这里成功。”
（3）政局稳定，远离动荡
Kavtaradzė is well placed to speak about life for young people in post-Soviet Lithuania. Her 2014 short I’m Twenty Something encapsulates perfectly the excruciating ordeal of having so many doors open to you but not knowing which one to walk through. It’s a privilege, she says, that her parents’ generation could only have dreamed of.
Kavtaradzė 非常适合谈论后苏联时期立陶宛年轻人的生活。她在 2014 年创作的短片《我二十岁了》（I'm Twenty Something）完美地概括了这种痛苦的煎熬：有那么多扇门向你敞开，但你却不知道该走进哪一扇。她说这是她父母那一代人梦寐以求的机会。
“What makes us unique is that we saw the country change really quickly,” she adds. “In my generation we all grew up really similarly, economically – like, I don’t have friends who were rich growing up. So I think that also, in some sense, gives us the mindset that we can do anything.”
她补充说：“我们的独特之处在于，我们看到了这个国家非常迅速的变化。我们这一代都是在相似的经济环境中成长起来的，我没有一个朋友是在富裕的环境中成长起来的。所以我认为，从某种意义上说，这也给了我们一种我们可以做成任何事情的心态。”
Antanas Kairys, a psychology professor at Vilnius University’s faculty of philosophy, cites the political situation as one of the main reasons for young people’s wellbeing. “Youth in Lithuania have a lot of possibilities now,” he says. Post-independence, “the change is drastic – both in terms of the economic situation and everyday life. I think one reason why young people rank so highly in this report is because they haven’t experienced the reality of the Soviet Union. They know it only from the stories of their parents and grandparents.”
维尔纽斯大学（Vilnius University）哲学系心理学教授安塔纳斯·凯里斯（Antanas Kairys）认为，政治局势是年轻人幸福的主要原因之一。“立陶宛的年轻人现在有很多可能性，在立陶宛独立后，无论是经济形势还是日常生活，都发生了翻天覆地的变化。我认为，年轻人在这份报告中排名如此靠前的一个原因是，他们没有经历过苏联的现实。他们只从父母和祖父母的故事中了解到苏联。”凯里斯说道。
PART.03
最幸福的人也有忧虑
The war in Ukraine threatens to upend the stability Lithuania has worked to achieve over the past 34 years. Young people are plagued by anxiety about what might happen if, as Motiejūnaitė puts it, “this war goes to the wrong side”.
乌克兰战争有可能颠覆立陶宛在过去 34 年中努力实现的稳定局面。正如莫泰尤奈泰（Motiejūnaitė）所说，如果这场战争走向错误的一方，年轻人会对可能发生的情况感到焦虑不安。
“We grew up with this fear inside us that everything nice that we have here could be taken away in a second,” she says. “It feels like people abroad are forgetting that there is a war happening in Ukraine, and it’s worrying.”Ukraine fatigue may have taken hold in some parts of the west, but for Lithuanians the threat of Russia still looms large.
她说：“我们一直心怀恐惧，害怕我们在这里所拥有的一切美好的东西都会在一瞬间被夺走。国外的人们好像都忘记了乌克兰正在发生战争，这令人担忧。”乌克兰冲突疲劳症可能已经在西方一些地区流行起来，但对立陶宛人来说，俄罗斯的威胁仍然挥之不去。
There is also the conundrum of the country’s suicide rate – which was the high in the EU in 2020 , at 21.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. “For older people, mental health is still a taboo topic,” says 19-year-old Cinny, a student at the university’s faculty of philosophy. “My mother, for example, still doesn’t believe that mental health is a problem in Lithuania.”
此外，该国的自杀率也是一个难题，2020 年，每 10 万居民中就有 21.3 人自杀身亡，是欧盟国家中自杀率最高的国家。哲学系 19 岁学生辛妮（Cinny）说道：“对于老年人来说，心理健康仍然是一个禁忌话题。例如，我的母亲至今仍不相信精神健康在立陶宛是个问题。”
There is less stigma among young people about mental health, but that stigma remains among the older generation. It’s partially related to the reality of the Soviet Union, where mental health services were used for political reasons – to imprison political opponents, for example.
年轻人对心理健康的成见有所减少，但这种成见在老一代人中依然存在。这在一定程度上与苏联的现实有关，在当时的苏联，心理健康服务被用于政治原因--例如监禁政治反对派。
As the light dwindles, the sky is pink and blue tie-dye; chatter spills from the open window of the bar out into the courtyard and the street. Conversation has the frenetic edge of a good night just beginning. IT worker Lukas Saženis, 29, is having a beer with some old colleagues outside.
天色渐暗，天空呈现出粉蓝相间的色调；闲聊声从酒吧敞开的窗户传到院子和街道上。人们兴致勃勃地交谈着，一个美好的夜晚刚刚开始。29 岁的 IT 工人卢卡斯·萨泽尼斯（Lukas Saženis）正和几个老同事在外面喝啤酒。
Is he the happiest person in the world? “Maybe not the happiest, but I think I’m relatively happy,” he allows. “I feel like we’re building towards something. We’re not stagnating. It’s easy to see how good we have it.”
他是世界上最幸福的人吗？他说：”也许我不是最幸福的，但相对来说我觉得我很幸福。我们正在朝着某个目标前进，我们并没有停滞不前，我们的美好生活显而易见。”
By the young of Lithuania
原文链接：
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jun/04/lithuania-happiest-place-in-the-world-young-people?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://www.goodnet.org/articles/lithuania-happiest-country-in-world-for-people-under-30#:~:text=Lithuania%E2%80%99s%20combination%20of%20economic%20opportunities%2C%20educational%20excellence%2C%20vibrant,create%20an%20environment%20where%20young%20people%20can%20thrive.
https://lithuania.lt/news/life-and-work-in-lithuania/world-happiness-report-lithuanias-youth-leads-the-charge/
编译 | 艾妮古丽
排版 | 艾妮古丽
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