Saturday, October 2, 2010

Royal News Roundup

Last weekend HM Queen Sonja of Norway visited a refugee camp in Kenya holding mostly Somalis as part of a campaign by the TV show “On the Run from War”. Back home, Crown Prince Haakon visited a blood drive center in Bergen, run by local students who had donned fangs and bloody lips to use the current ‘vampire craze’ to help their efforts to encourage people to donate blood. The visit of the Crown Prince was part of the “Global Dignity” campaign of which he is a co-founder. Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Mary have been touring Germany and Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden have been visiting France as part of the 200th anniversary of the reign of the House of Bernadotte. The founder of the current Swedish Royal Family was originally a Marshal of France in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte.

HM King Abdullah II of Jordan appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with John Stewart” Thursday in which he stressed that all Arab nations are on the side of the peace process but still predicted war if Israel continues to establish settlements on the West bank, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, in New York, Queen Rania was forced to undergo a “procedure” for an irregular heart rhythm. A report also emerged that the Queen was found to have diabetes but her staff says the procedure went fine and the Queen is in good spirits. The Mad Monarchist wishes the lovely Queen of Jordan a speedy recovery.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch issued a report Monday which found that the people of Saudi Arabia have been enjoying greater freedom since the accession of HM King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz citing examples such as women having greater freedom of movement and voices critical of the government being tolerated. However, the report still stressed the lack of freedom of religion for non-Muslims and dissenting Muslims and pointed out that the current heir to the throne seems more hard-line than the current monarch.

On Wednesday HM the King of Thailand made a rare public appearance to attend the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. The revered monarch has been in hospital for quite some time, suffering from a variety of ailments complicated by his 81-year age.

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