Royal News Roundup

Starting, again, this week in the British Isles, HM the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh attended the highland games in Scotland while back at Buckingham Palace HRH the Duke of York was challenged by security who failed to notice that he had returned from an engagement early and went for a walk in the garden. The Palace seems to be having a problem with security lately. A visit to Ireland by the Queen was canceled due to concerns over a bomb threat (please lets not start that again), Prince William, amidst dreams of Africa and hopes that little Prince George will be devoted to conservation, announced that after his current tour of duty is up he will be devoting his time to royal duties and his charitable causes (as well as being a parent) instead of his current occupation as a rescue-pilot. Prince Harry and Prince William also teamed up to raise considerable amounts of money for disabled children and a 9-11 charity event. HRH the Prince of Wales thanked veterans of the epic “Battle of Britain” this week (there are fewer and fewer left these days) and rightly so. Were it not for the brave pilots and men and women on the ground in those days, Britain might have faced a German invasion. Thanks are in order. Princess Eugenie of York will also be moving soon to New York in the USA to take a job at a prestigious auction house in the Big Apple.

On the continent, HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco donned Monegasque native dress for the annual Monegasque “family” picnic at Antoinette park in Monaco, also attended by the Sovereign Prince, Princess Caroline, Baroness de Massy and daughter Melanie.

Also in New York, at UN headquarters, HM Queen Sofia accepted, on behalf of Spain, the FDR International Disability Rights Award. A very worthy cause even if it is named after one of the worst presidents in American history.

In Belgium, a spokesman for Prince Laurent was asked if he will give a DNA sample for the paternity lawsuit against his father and he said, “If asked, he will consider it. He’s not against it as a matter of principle. He’s very open to the notion. This doesn’t reflect on his possible decision.” Representatives of the former monarch himself have given the impression that King Albert II will not be cooperating in any way with this latest legal case. In happier news, King Philip and Queen made their “joyous entry” into Wavre, the capital of Walloon Brabant, meeting with local officials and the public on a walk about town. This is the second such visit for the new King and Queen who will have visited every Belgian province by the end of October.

Prince Felix and his future Princess

Across the border it was announced that photographer Erwin Olaf will design the new euro coin featuring the new Dutch monarch King Willem-Alexander and, in the opposite direction, excitement over the royal wedding coming up a week from now in Luxembourg is clearly building. Prince Felix is set to marry his German girlfriend Claire Lademacher next week and a very handsome couple the two make. Congratulations to them.

On the Scandinavian front, HRH Crown Princess Victoria attended the Sustainable Seas seminar this week (everyone seems very keen to conserve and sustain things these days) where she probably had more fun that her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who had an audience this week with US President Obama on his way to the G-8 summit in Russia. And, down in Paris, France, HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway was guest of honor at the opening of the Norwegian stand at the international art fair at the Grand Palais, proudly showing off what Norway has to offer.

King Sihamoni

In the royals of eternal Asia, it was a case of gain one, lose one for the family of the Aga Khan recently. Only last week you saw it here that his eldest son Prince Rahim Aga Khan married his American girlfriend Kendra Spears, now Princess Salwa. This week, however, the word is out that his younger son Prince Hussein has divorced his American wife Kristin White, known as Princess Khaliya after her conversion to Islam and marriage. The two met at Columbia University and were married in 2006. Meanwhile, in southeast Asia, HM King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia is set to go ahead with opening parliament in spite of the fact that the opposition party is set to boycott the proceedings as they demand an independent probe into voter fraud on the part of the Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen who has ruled the country ever since being placed in power by the communist Vietnamese forces who invaded Cambodia and destroyed the nightmarish regime of Pol Pot. CPP officials have argued that the King is required to convene parliament whether the opposition thinks they cheated or not. In neighboring Thailand, a man held for almost a year on charges of defaming the beloved King has been acquitted and released. His arrest was deemed the result of a false charge made by his brother. Apparently the two have a history of being at odds with each other. And in the former Middle Kingdom this week, archaeologists believe they have unearthed the tomb of a powerful female official who was a trusted aid to Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty, the first empress to rule China in her own right.

Finally, I wanted to talk about some stories this week that really disturbed your humble correspondent the most. First to come to my attention was a collection of drawings done by children in the Republic of Korea, very small children by the look of them, which carried the theme of hatred for Japan. These included drawings showing Japan being bombed, the islands in flames, Japanese flags being burned and trampled on among other disgraceful things. Sadly, this is not an unusual attitude amongst the republican neighbors of Japan. Red China has for years included in the education program by the bandit government in Peking indoctrination lessons to teach children to always hate Japan (the only remaining monarchy in northeast Asia) and lest anyone think North Korea is an exception, this is the same country that has said that if South Korea attacks them -they will attack Tokyo. As little sense as that makes to anyone with a working brain. This is all the more disgraceful because children are not born holding such hateful feelings. No group of children, on their own, just decide to draw pictures of a neighboring country being bombed or engulfed in flames; this is a hatred they were taught. Given attitudes like this, is it any wonder that more people in Japan are talking about revising Article 9 of their constitution? I hate to see cases like this in particular because I like South Korea and would like to see more friendly solidarity between the non-communist countries of Asia in opposition to the expanding power of Red China.

Unfortunately, mindless republican hatred of an island monarchy is not directed only at Japan. Great Britain, as well, should be able to sympathize. This last week, under the pretext of a British presence at an Olympics committee meeting in Argentina, saw a couple hundred leftist, republican thugs in that country take to the streets to chant anti-British slogans, call for the conquest of the Falkland Islands and generally vent their extreme anti-British hatred. Just to really offend monarchist sensibilities they burned an effigy of HM the Queen. There were also very real concerns for the safety of HRH the Princess Royal Anne who was attending the meeting and who the Argentine republican thugs labeled the “pirate princess”. These types of people, these vile, disgusting, republican cretins are just the sort of people those little children drawing the pictures in Korea are going to grow up to be like. In both cases you have disputed islands at issue between a monarchy on one side and a mainland full of republics on the other. One difference is that, when it comes to the Falklands, there are people on some of those islands and the U.K. needs to think long and hard about their continuous gutting of the British armed forces in light of protests like that seen in Argentina. What would happen to the people on the Falklands if the likes of those street vermin ever gained power in Argentina or pushed a faltering republican government to take action? Again, I would like to see Britain and Argentina have friendly relations but one should always be prepared. My advice to both HM the Queen and HM the Emperor; keep calm and expand the navy.

(as an aside, Sept 8 marked the 400th anniversary of relations between Britain and Japan when gifts were exchanged by King James I and the Tokugawa Shogun)