Last weekend, the news that dominated the world’s headlines was undoubtedly the release of a video statement by Britain’s Princess of Wales, Kate, admitting that she is in the early stages of treatment for cancer. Only a day before the statement, speculation and even rumors were flying about Princess Kate’s lack of public appearances since Christmas. In the face of the candid and haggard Princess, Britons suddenly had a “guilty conscience” and apologized to Kate. Some newspapers demanded an end to the rumors and harm done to Kate. Flowers were again piled up at Kate’s Prince’s Palace and in front of the Royal Courts of Justice, encouraging Kate to overcome her illness.

Where has Kate gone?

Until March 22, when the BBC first released a video of Princess Kate admitting she had cancer, “Where’s Kate?” had become a global topic, with trending searches for her whereabouts, news headlines, and even conspiracy theories.

Kate has not been seen in public since last Christmas. Until January 17th, the British royal family suddenly issued a statement that Princess Kate was hospitalized on January 16th to undergo a planned abdominal surgery, and said that she would not participate in any public activities before Easter (March 31st.) On January 29th, Kensington Palace again issued a statement saying that Princess Kate has returned home, and the progress is good.

Since the royal family did not tell the specific type of surgery, some netizens claimed that the private hospital where Kate had her surgery was famous for treating cancer, suggesting that Kate had an “incurable” disease. Since then, social media has been abuzz with talk of Kate’s long absence. Every day or two, a new conspiracy theory emerges to try to explain Kate’s “disappearance”: some say Kate is in critical condition and has a short life expectancy; others say she has passed away, and others say she has suffered a marital breakdown……. People have even begun to worry that Kate will repeat the tragedy of Princess Diana.

In the face of all the speculation and even malicious rumors, the British royal family has long practiced the principle of “silence is golden”. It wasn’t until March 10th, Mother’s Day, that Kate and William’s social media accounts posted the first official photo of Kate since Christmas in an attempt to dispel the rumors. In the photo, Kate is sitting in a chair surrounded by her children, all four of them smiling happily. William captioned the photo, “Thank you all for your wonderful wishes and support over the last two months, Happy Mother’s Day to you all.” However, the photo was taken down by a number of media outlets after it was pointed out that there were obvious signs of retouching in several of the details, and the story became more and more confusing.

The next day, the account apologized in Kate’s own words, saying, “Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally try to edit, and I want to apologize for any confusion caused by the family photo we shared yesterday. There was a public outcry. It’s been an eye-opening crisis of PR for the royal family. The only way to put the rumors to rest was for the right person to come forward, which led to last weekend’s video statement.

For a long time, the British royal public relations (PR) department has been trying to find a balance between “friendliness” and “mystery”. This year, the royal family has been under attack several times. First, King Charles suspended his public activities due to cancer, and then Princess Kate did not show up for a long time.Princess Kate’s appearance on camera will put an end to some of the speculation, but in the spotlight, the British royal family will have to face the new challenges of the information age.

The privacy of royals needs to be respected

The release of Princess Kate’s video statement gained a great deal of attention from people around the world. A spokesman for Kensington Palace later said in a statement that the Williams had received “very touching messages of goodwill” since Kate, Princess of Wales, was publicly diagnosed with cancer, and that they were “grateful for the public’s warmth, support and understanding of their fundamental need to respect privacy at this time”. This is partly a thank you for the public’s warm concern and response, and partly a “polite warning”. After all, the publicizing of the diagnosis is over.

The last few weeks have been extremely difficult for Mr. and Mrs. Williams, their children, and the teams around them, and despite attempts to dispel the rumors, it has proven to be an impossible task. The release of the video statement was a “no-brainer” that put an end to the secrecy surrounding Princess Kate’s diagnosis, including all the false rumors and allegations that had been made. What the royal couple probably wants more than anything else is to be alone, to spend better family time with their three young children, and not be subjected to the constant distractions of the outside world.

William’s three children, including 10-year-old Prince George, 8-year-old Princess Charlotte, 5-year-old Prince Louis school has begun on the 22nd Easter holiday, until April 17th will not return to school, William and his wife has already stated that will not participate in this year’s Easter ceremony. Kate’s choice to announce her condition on the day before her children’s Easter vacation after a three-month hiatus can be described as a “pity for the world’s parents”. This way, they can bring their three children home to a safer and more enclosed environment, where they will be exposed to as little outside interference as possible, and where they will be more emotionally and psychologically receptive.

But will the British media and public, who have always been critical of the royals, let a young family in a vulnerable situation off the hook so easily? The cancer announcement is just the beginning of what could be even greater pressure on Princess Kate to reveal more details about her condition, and cancer-related charities may jump on her to raise their profile. Discussing the disease in public may give some patients a sense of control and support, but for others it’s a very private matter, whether the patient is a member of the royal family or a member of the general public. Kate has sacrificed some of her privacy, and that request for “privacy” deserves to be honored.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak noted that Kate had “shown great courage” in her statement, adding that she had been “unfairly treated by some media and social media outlets around the world”. Princess Kate is a member of the royal family, but she is also a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a living human being who needs the company and support of others at such a difficult time in her life – especially family members and loved ones, but not strangers and megaphones. Assuming that one day Princess Kate recovers, if she doesn’t want to talk to us or anyone else about what she’s been through, that’s her choice, and there’s no room for anyone else to tell her what to do.

The embarrassment of the royal family

In the age of social media, people have become so accustomed to uninhibited access to public figures that it’s only natural to unrealistically expect them to be completely self-disclosing. The general public is wildly skeptical of public figures’ need for privacy. When any public figure expresses a desire to stay out of the spotlight, people tend to make bad, even vicious, assumptions. In the case of the video statement, the conspiracy theories turned out to be about a woman with cancer. In the face of such a horrific disease, Kate is just another human being who has the right to deal with her illness on her own.

But Princess Kate’s cancer diagnosis does put the British royal family in an even more uncertain position. Charles, who succeeded to the throne in September 2022 after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, underwent surgery to correct an enlarged prostate at the same hospital as Kate in January. Buckingham Palace subsequently revealed in February that the 75-year-old King would be undergoing treatment for cancer, meaning he would have to postpone his public royal duties. With the serious health problems of both the King and Kate adding to the already thinning monarchy, the pressure on Prince William is conceivably severe.

Democracy in Britain has been a gradual process, and the monarch has always existed. The constitutional monarchy was the most natural path for the British. As the power of the monarch gradually weakened, the monarch eventually became a symbol. Charles had no power, and although he was clothed in fine clothes and food, he was just a decoration. At the beginning of the centuries-long process of gradual democratization, the existence of a monarch was a reason for stability and obedience for a people who had been completely familiar and accustomed to monarchical power for millennia, and for the army and the people of the nation. Even if it is an “ornament”, it cannot be abolished at will. The existence of the royal family is not only a cultural preservation of history, but also a living fossil of political history, and since the existence of the king has not hindered the progress of democracy, there is no reason why it should be abolished.

During the crisis public relations campaign for Princess Kate’s disappearance, the British royal family’s stagnant silence has annoyed the social media-obsessed public. With conspiracy theories updated every few days, it was as if the public and the royal family were living in different generations – clearly, the royal family is having trouble keeping up with the ever-changing internet age. Social media is supposed to be a win-win for the royals, a means of getting their message out without question or tampering, except for the tampering of Kate’s photo, which has inevitably eroded the royal family’s credibility.

Even though most people may forgive and forget, trust is vital to the monarchy. Moreover, in a recent survey, 69% of Britons said they were worried about the difficulty of distinguishing truth from fiction on the Internet. This was before the swirl of rumors and misinformation about Katherine. And this incident will undoubtedly further exacerbate people’s skepticism about much of what they see in the news media and on social media. The biggest example of this was when the BBC published the video of Princess Kate’s cancer announcement, and immediately afterward there were voices on the internet questioning whether it had been synthesized by AI. People’s confidence in the information environment is waning.

The British royal family has been in turmoil since 1936, when Edward VIII “did not love the kingdom but the beauty”. Over the past 70 years, Elizabeth II has played the role of the “spiritual symbol” of the royal family with a high approval rate, bringing a relatively positive image of the British royal family, but her grandchildren have been involved in numerous scandals, and the internal affairs of the royal family have been frequently exposed to the world. After the death of the Queen, the British royal family has lost its backbone, and Princess Kate, who has always been well-liked by the public, is undoubtedly a new star of the British royal family – her cancer at this time seems to have pushed the reasonableness of the existence of the royal family system into a great unknown.

Australian Responses

To this day, Australia is theoretically a federal state under the Emperor of Australia, with each state and territory and the Commonwealth having a Governor appointed by Charles III. Princess Kate’s husband, Prince William, could have succeeded Charles III as head of the Australian states and commonwealths before Australia became a republic. However, today’s Australians, who come from more than a hundred countries around the world, and especially those who have immigrated from Asia in the last thirty years, do not see themselves as being connected to the royal family. Generally speaking, Australians are not as enthusiastic as the British about the privacy of the royal family.

At the end of the last century, when a referendum was held on whether to change the system of government and establish a republic, those who opposed the idea of maintaining a constitutional monarchy won by a small majority, thus temporarily silencing the calls for change. Occasionally, however, there were still demands. At the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it was thought that Charles III was too old and would probably make Australia a republic in the short term because of the disinterest in the crown and the low level of support among Australians.

This time, Princess Kate, as a woman suffering from cancer, told the public about her situation and demanded respect from the public, and gained the support of the community in Australia. The Australian society attaches importance to the rights of the disadvantaged groups in the society. The way Princess Kate handled the situation may be seen as a way to promote respect for women’s rights and concern for cancer patients in the society. If this happens, it may well slow down the demand for Australia to change its status to a republic. If it does, it may be an outcome that was not envisioned at the outset of the incident.

Article/Editorial Department (Sameway Magazine)

Photo/Internet

What is happiness? I believe that many people are unable to define this common feeling. Everyone who tries to define “happiness” realizes that people around the world have different perceptions of happiness in different races, cultures, societies and times. However, the United Nations still tries to compare the happiness of people in different countries.

The International Day of Happiness is celebrated on March 20 every year. On that day, the United Nations releases the 2024 Global Happiness Index Report. The UN has been publishing this report since 2012 in order to promote the UN’s goal of sustainable development. The annual report is based on data from Gallup, a US-based market research company, and the results are analyzed by a global team led by the University of Oxford. This year, Finland topped the list for the seventh time with an average score of 7.7, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel in second to fifth place. The last two countries are Lebanon and Afghanistan with 2.7 and 1.7 points respectively.

From this report, it can be seen that the study is based on the Western society’s understanding of happiness, and the results may not be applicable to other cultures. However, we can still compare the lives of people in different countries in terms of what constitutes “happiness”.

How are the world’s happy countries rated?

This is the 12th year of the release of the United Nations World Happiness Report. Every year, the United Nations invites the people of 143 countries to assess their own well-being according to the Gallup World Poll, which is the world’s most comprehensive and wide-ranging public opinion survey, and it ranks the well-being of more than 100 countries and regions around the world in terms of their per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), expected life expectancy, and corruption perception. The report ranks more than 100 countries and regions around the world in terms of their per capita GDP, expected healthy life expectancy and corruption perception.

Specifically, respondents were invited to complete a series of self-assessments to rate their happiness on the Cantril Scale. The scale is essentially a self-fulfillment scale, with the top of the scale (representing a score of 10) meaning the happiest, and the bottom of the scale (i.e. 0) meaning the least happy. Due to the unstable nature of single-year data, since 2013, international comparisons have been made using the average results of the last three years.

In addition, the report measures and investigates a number of factors that may be associated with people’s self-reported happiness, the six most important of which are “GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption”. The results of the report synthesize the above surveys based on the average ratings completed by people in each country over a three-year period in terms of their assessment of their own quality of life. It is important to note that since the rankings are based on the answers people provide when taking the survey, they do not necessarily take into account the latest current events or recent changes.

The latest World Happiness Report 2024 again shows that the Nordic countries have the edge. Of course, many people in Scandinavian countries, such as Finland, do not agree with this result.The Finns are typically a tough and self-restrained people who do not show their anger and joy. If we were to rank them on the basis of their expression of joy and anger, the Finns would not rank very high – they are very different from the Latin Americans in this respect, for example, the Latin Americans as a whole are very rich in emotional expression. For the Finns, happiness is a measured, balanced, and uncomplaining life. In other words, the Finns feel that it is better to say that they are content than to say that they are happy. It would be more accurate to say that the Finns are the least unhappy people in the world. They are very good at minimizing the factors that make people unhappy and turning their wealth into social well-being.

Looking at Asia, Singapore is Asia’s ‘happiest country’ for the second year running, ranking 30th globally, Taiwan is Asia’s second happiest country, ranking 31st, Japan and South Korea rank 51st and 52nd respectively, and China ranks 60th, with Hong Kong dropping four places from last year to 86th, down from 72nd place in Russia. China was ranked ninth in Asia, while Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were among the unhappiest countries in Asia, and India, the world’s most populous country, was ranked 126th out of 143.

Australia ranks 10th in the world in terms of happiness, while New Zealand ranks 11th. It is believed that these two countries have been at the top for a long time because of their small populations, rich resources, stability and welfare, which has made Australia an immigrant’s paradise, and a lot of New Zealanders have also settled in Australia. It is hard to understand why the population of New Zealand cannot increase despite the fact that it is not inferior to Australia in all aspects. Is it because it is too cold for immigrants to move in?

It is expected that Hong Kong people feel the least happy in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. At present, Hong Kong’s economy is in the doldrums, and social freedom and grievances towards the government are obvious, and I believe they will not change in the near future. Taiwan’s happiness is close to Singapore’s. I believe this has nothing to do with the rapid development of Taiwan’s economy in recent years, as well as the rapid rise of the stock market and the increase in national wealth. On the other hand, Mainland China has entered into an economic dilemma, and is under the pressure of the western society and the collapse of the property market. I believe that the situation will not be improved in the near future.

The United States of America, considered as the most advanced country in the world, is ranked 23rd, which is not low, but reflects that its citizens have not fully realized the development of the United States today. Perhaps it is due to the economic policies of the U.S. that have led to the inequality between the rich and the poor, and the inability of the lower class to make a living.

Apart from Europe, inequality in happiness has also increased globally. Happiness inequality is most pronounced among the elderly and in sub-Saharan Africa. These results reflect differences in income, education, health care, social acceptance and support within households, communities and countries.

Happiness among young people is on the decline

In the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, happiness has been declining in recent years across all age groups, especially among younger people. In fact, young people are currently the unhappiest age group in the world, according to data for the period 2021-2023. However, Australia’s youth happiness ranking has risen slightly by two places from last year, and only this year has the overall happiness index squeezed into the top 10 globally.

The average life assessment of the world’s under-30s declines significantly with age, often in a U-shaped pattern of lower life satisfaction in mid-life; this is now the case in more than half of Asia and Africa, with Hong Kong ranking 97th in terms of young people’s happiness globally, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, young people are twice as unhappy as older people. Young people in these four countries are experiencing a worrying trend towards a ‘mid-life crisis’, and young women are more unhappy than young men.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor of economics at the University of Oxford who edited the report, told the media that young people are experiencing a midlife crisis today, especially in North America. In the United States, young people are not as happy as older people, which has led to a decline in the U.S. rankings. If we look at the elderly group alone, the U.S. ranks 10th in the world, but young people in the U.S. rank 62nd in terms of happiness. New Zealand has a similar problem. New Zealand ranks sixth in the world when looking at the over-60s group alone, but 27th in terms of the well-being of its young people. By contrast, many of the biggest improvements in well-being have been in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Unlike in wealthier countries, young people there report a significantly higher quality of life than older groups, often equal to or better than in Western Europe.

In addition, the negative impact of social platforms, polarized social debates, disparities between the rich and the poor, and the difficulty of getting ahead are all factors that contribute to the decline in young people’s happiness. Meanwhile, as people age, they tend to remember the positive aspects of their lives more than the negative ones. This may help explain why life evaluations rise with age.

What is Happiness?

“The establishment of the International Day of Happiness is indeed a major step forward for human civilization, as it makes it clear that happiness is the ‘spiritual home shared by all human beings’, i.e. ‘common happiness’. “Common Happiness” is the common value of mankind. Since the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental goal of human beings, and happiness and well-being are common goals and expectations in the lives of human beings all over the world, what exactly is happiness? When most people are suddenly confronted with the question, “Are you happy? most people are more or less at a loss for words when they are suddenly confronted with the question “Are you happy? What is happiness? It’s a question that comes up a lot, and everyone has a different answer.

The global quest for happiness did not just start a decade or so ago. For thousands of years, human beings have never given up thinking about happiness, searching for happiness, defining happiness, and envisioning happiness. Especially after the Enlightenment era, Enlightenment thinkers who pursued rationality, humanism, science, and progress regarded happiness as a goal that all people can pursue in this life, a right or even an obligation in this world. Since then, people have conceptualized happiness as an innate human ability, a goal that can be achieved by all men, women, and children.

In recent years, in the academic circle, besides psychologists, there are also brain scientists, clinicians, social scientists and economists involved in the study of happiness. Scientists also recognize that it is difficult to pinpoint happiness to a specific discipline, and that the study of happiness is necessarily an interdisciplinary one. Therefore, the definition of happiness is never a single constant. For example, Bhutan and Nepal are underdeveloped countries, and Bhutan’s economic level is among the lowest in South Asia and even in Asia, but it has always had a very high happiness index. In a sense, these countries have not yet entered the state of “consumer society” that everyone in the West knows. The pace of life there is slow, even crossing the street is slow, they do not have the concept of over-consumption, they do not have mortgage loans, so naturally, their satisfaction with life is extraordinarily high. From this we can see that “happiness” can be a completely subjective concept.

One thing is for sure, an unhappy person who immigrates to a country with a stronger sense of happiness will not feel happier immediately. On the contrary, every immigrant will go through the stages of cultural change, losing friends and family who have been supporting them in their endeavors, re-establishing relationships in a country and adjusting their expectations in life when they first arrive in a country. These can be stressful and difficult, so many immigrants, especially those from wealthy countries, experience a decline in happiness during the adjustment period.

There is never a right answer to happiness, nor is there a perfect happiness. Trying to find perfect happiness is often counterproductive. John Stuart Mill once said that those who are truly happy are not actually concerned with their own happiness. They often find happiness by accident in the pursuit of other things. May we all stop dwelling on the question “Are you happy? Instead of dwelling on the question “Are you happy?”, let’s all feel good, be grateful for life, utilize our abilities, and experience different levels of happiness in the course of our actions.

Article/Editorial Department (Sameway Magazine)

Photo/Internet

Born in Hong Kong, my major subject stream was Science in the secondary school, yet I loved doing Chinese History and picked up Chinese Literature in Form 4, without realising why I was so interested in them. By now I also encouraged my 2-year-old granddaughter to read Chinese idiom stories for building a better value of life. I believe we should not just inherit Chinese culture but also to make use of it critically in the interest of local society here. This is exactly how Australia attract and build multiculturalism in this nation.

No matter in and from where, Chinese seem to be under an invisible bondage. It’s our Chinese culture that makes Chinese indifferent to politics. Through Confucianism and education over the past 3000 years, autocratic rulers have rationalized Chinese giving up in politics. The Cultural Revolution had done massive damage to Chinese economy as well as impact in the following decades for Chinese to give up civil rights for a better materialistic living. So many Chinese from China seldom talk about political vision and social development. Chinese immigrants aim to support the governing body for self interest.

Until recently, Hong Kong immigrants too tend to stay away from discussing and participating in politics. The recent National Security Act in Hong Kong extends its extraterritorial governance to cover public opinions on Hong Kong/China made by Australians originated from Hong Kong. Possibly we shall see more Hong Kong Australians will be reluctant to express their opinions on what are happening in Hong Kong and China. This situation is quite similar to young Chinese students who do not wish to criticise Hong Kong or Chinese government.

I do not think so.

Chinese residing in Australia, upon their citizenship declaration, should embrace Australian values including democracy, freedom, equity and rule of law, with the right to ask for accountability of the governing body. To publish media as an Australian citizen I will persist in my belief on Sameway, whether it could violate extraterritorial governance under the law of Hong Kong.

Sameway serves Australian Chinese, and would connect to all Chinese globally through the internet publication. We do not have any intention to influence the Chinese or Hong Kong societies, nor should we have this duty to do anything. We honour the values of world-wide societies; I hope I could have your acknowledgement and support on this in the future.

I know persisting in this belief will make our operation harder. But I hope you can walk with me, persistently.

Mr. Raymond Chow,  Publisher of Sameway Magazine