People set off fireworks to celebrate the New Year in a commercial district in Taipei on Jan. 1, 2021.
According to the latest World Happiness Report 2021 released by the United Nations on Friday, March 19, Taiwan moved up to 19th place from 24th place in the previous survey, remaining the happiest country in East Asia.
According to the latest World Happiness Report 2021, the top five happiest countries are Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands, in that order. Researchers say Finland’s consistently high ranking in the “mutual trust” indicator played a big role during the Epidemic, so it’s no surprise that Finland is once again the happiest country.
In 2020, the Chinese communist virus (New Coronavirus, COVID-19) swept the world and countries were overwhelmed by the need to control the outbreak. Taiwan has effectively controlled the spread of the virus and reduced the damage in this epidemic prevention. Former Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen said at an online event of the Chinese Science and Industry Association in San Diego, California, in early February that Taiwan’s success in preventing the epidemic was due not only to the use of a large number of smart technologies, but also to the deployment of “democracy” and “transparency” because The government has increased public trust and the people of Taiwan have shown “solidarity”, which is an important element in the prevention and control of the epidemic.
The best-selling book “La Verdad de la Pandemia” (The Truth about the Global Pandemic) by the renowned Spanish author Cristina Martín Jiménez explores the relationship between the epidemic and the economy and geopolitics, and mentions Taiwan’s vigilance against the Chinese Communist Party as a key to the success of the epidemic. The book reads, “Taiwan was so familiar with dealing with China (CCP) that it did not wait for the WHO to make recommendations, but quickly responded to detect the virus and implement a quarantine to prevent the spread of infection. Taiwan was unable to become a member of the WHO because of pressure from China (the Chinese Communist Party) on the international community. Taiwan, just 130 kilometers from China, responded on its own, with 385 confirmed cases and six deaths at the Time.”
Many immigrants of Taiwanese descent who have settled in Southern California are also proud of Taiwan’s success in preventing the epidemic and are tired of the California government’s epidemic prevention measures and bans, choosing to move their families back to Taiwan for a short time during the epidemic.
The World Happiness Report 2021 analyzes the epidemic prevention performance of six Western countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, and five East Asian countries or regions, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. It also pointed out that compared with European and American countries, the performance of East Asian countries in epidemic prevention is better, mainly because the government is more powerful and immediate in responding to the epidemic, and the citizens are more cooperative.
Compared to the previous survey, slightly more than one-third of the countries in the survey had “significantly higher negative sentiment,” but 22 countries also had increased positive sentiment. John Helliwell, co-author of the report, said, “On average, people are not less happy with their lives, and one possible reason for this is that the epidemic is seen as an external threat that everyone shares, thus inspiring a greater sense of solidarity and empathy.” So it is surprising that the happiness of people overall has not decreased globally. Of the 149 countries surveyed, the lowest happiness index is in Afghanistan, followed by Zimbabwe, Luanda & Botswana. The United Kingdom fell from 13th to 18th on the happiness index, and the United States rose from 18th to 14th. China ranked 52nd.
The “World Happiness Report” is a sustainable development program of the United Nations to measure happiness, using data from Gallup, a polling organization, to survey people’s happiness in 149 countries, as well as a combination of indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), social support, personal freedom and corruption. Due to the impact of the epidemic, this year’s report offers two special rankings, one based on the traditional ranking of the average Gallup poll for the past three years, and the other for the 2020 poll only, in order to understand the impact of the epidemic on the subjective well-being of individuals.
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