by Young Soo Shim

The queen of the people’s hearts, America’s only real princess, the most-loved woman in the 20th century. These are some of the eulogies that American mass media have tirelessly heaped on Diana, the late princess of Wales, since her death in early September. Does Diana really deserve all the tributes? I don’t think so.

To speak badly of anyone who already does not exist in this world is taboo in any part of the world. I know that much. Yet for the sake of setting records straight, I would dare to break the taboo. What kind of a woman was Diana? What kind of life had she lived since her separation from Prince Charles?

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Let’s start from her scene of death. American media described her death as a tragic death. Diana and her billionaire boyfriend Dodi Fayed were on their way to a night of secret (?) romance when they were involved in the Paris accident that killed them.

An intimate dinner at a Paris hotel (with a guy better known as an international playboy and whose ex-girlfriends include Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses) and speeding away from paparazzi on their way to a secret romance what a scandalous final chapter of a life. It was the most scandalous an end as it could be to a fairy tale involving a British princess who gripped the world’s media attention for 18 years.

By the way, who was Fayed? He was one of a long list of Diana’s men as she was one of his women.

Since her separation from Prince Charles, Diana truly had set a new standard of royal behavior. She was bold enough to make love with a royal cavalry officer in her garden while her royal security guards witnessed. She was courageous enough to send letters to the officer in which she said she missed the scent of his flesh. Have such behaviors that could only fit into American soap operas could have helped Diana win the hearts of Americans?

After meeting Fayed, who is known to the outside world for nothing but his family’s huge financial assets and his flair for beautiful Hollywood women, Diana made headlines in the world’s tabloids with her typical bravados such as her sensational kiss while topless aboard Fayed’s yacht. Once when blissfully confiding to her friend, Diana said that she had found real happiness in her life with Fayed. What kind of happiness? I think I know what she meant.

Then why did American news media give such a tribute to Diana’s death? Because she devoted her time to humanitarian causes as the media claimed? Did she devote more time to the humanitarian cause than to her romance? I don’t think so. Did her work for the humanitarian causes truly deserve such an eulogy? Again, I don’t think so.

Around the time of Diana’s death, we lost a really great human being who truly devoted the whole part of her life to help the underprivileged Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa did way more than briefly visiting an orphanage just to shake hands or give a hug with a photogenic smile all the time under heavy media limelight. Through her life, Mother Teresa showed what true love was like. She shared joy and tragedy with the world’s least fortunate people while eating, sleeping and living with them most of the time outside the limelight of the news media.

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Compared to the media coverage of Diana’s death, the media attention to Mother Teresa was a pity. How can you explain the media discrimination against Teresa?

What only sets Diana apart might be that Diana had physical beauty that Mother Teresa did not have. Mother Teresa probably didn’t desire to have that beauty, either. No, Mother Teresa didn’t have the youth and the sexiness that Diana had in abundance and fully enjoyed. But for the sake of the peace of common souls like me who believe in common sense as the leading guide of life, please stop calling Diana The queen of the people’s hearts, America’s only real princess, the most loved woman in the 20th century, etc. If you have to give her a sensational title as you have done so many times in the past Diana’s marriage was the marriage of the century it would be better to call her one of the 20th century’s most scandalous women. But don’t call her death the death of the century.

Finally, I pray that both souls have lasting peace in heaven. At the same time, I pray that Diana’s death does not give the wrong message to young people:If you want to be well-remembered, die young.

Graduate student of Journalism