More pictures!
Crown Prince Pavlos and family
I wonder if these two are done with kids? Not that 5 wouldn’t be enough, but if they wanted more, there’s now the right distance to Prince Astride… Maria Olympia is cute, isn’t she? But damn that’s a short little dress.
Here with Marie and Joachim you can see why the wedding was set at this time of day because wow, that is nice lightning of the scene.
My Theodora… Half a cup size more would have been good, you know? Mh, but in armour, shield and sword? Scary girl, scary. Get yourself in a film or a crime procedural.
We did get a few Brits after all. Lady Gabriella Windsor (who we’ve already seen), Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Prince Michael is the son of Princess Marina, herself a Greek Princess. His sister is Princess Alexandra, Honorary Lady Ogivly.
You know Iran still has an empress? Well, here she is. Exiled, of course, but there’s hope yet.
The former King and Queen of the Hellenes
I still am of the opinion the Greeks should take their King back. Not because that would give us another royal family showing up, but rather because I’d trust him (or rather, Pavlos) to get that state out of its misery again within a generation.
Rainbow dress for Máxima, but I quite like it
Princess Alexia and her family. Another 4 little kids.
I admit, these days I always look at Vikkan’s belly first. I’m practically waiting for a pregnancy announcement… Although I’d still prefer a summer baby *g*
Keep your opinions about other people’s countries to yourself. The only thing this worthless man ever did for Greece was to break the constitution and instigate a constitutional coup that led to the downfall on the government, and the ensuing instability ultimately led to a 7 year old junta, and a gold medal for sailing. So please, stick to being a leech to the rich and fabulous and leave the decisions and opinions of who should run things to those who are affected.
Firstly, I suppose I can have my opinions in my own blog, yes? Secondly, why are you reading a blog maintained by “a leech to the rich and fabulous” in the first place?
True, the current government here hasn’t run things into the ground, which isn’t to say it hasn’t happened here before, with devastating enough consequences. And I’m also not proposing to give anyone anywhere absolute power. That is probably the worst action possible in our modern world, and the belief in absolute authority has brought more grief than gain. On the other hand, while there certainly are disadvantages, there also are certain advantages to having a hereditary head of state position, as the current generation will always want to preserve a prosperous nation for the next. Personal gain is a matter for everyone, with a hereditary head of state at least no one will get rich and then vanish.
So your whole argument is based on the fact that for some bizarre reason you assume that other types of heads of state, like the current Greek President, who also have figurehead positions, have no kids aparently, so they don’t care what they leave behind. And somehow even though the kings will have no power they will somehow preserve a prosperous nation. Finally, there is apparently no chance that with a hereditary system you are very likely to end up with a useless twat like Constantine is of no concern?
In addition, of course you can have your opinions, but it’s not like we’re fighting about the rights of women in Afghanistan, why would you care who is the head of state of Greece?
But why would I not? It’s vacation country, it’s part of the EU, it bears consideration. I also care (and know) who’s head of state in France, Poland or Italy.
And you can end up with useless twats in a democracy as well, for that matter, we’ve had plenty of recent examples of those. Or worse than useless, competent ones who run their governments like an absolute system. Enough examples for that, too. There’s no such thing as perfect governments or perfect systems, as long as people fill the roles. The question is, is it better when people have elected their idiots themselves rather than be presented with them by birth?
Another factor are the people who live in the country, I’m not sure every people is ready to live in a democracy (yet) – and I’m speaking in general here, not of Greece.
While this has nothing directly to do with Greece either, anti-monarchist movements seem to disregard the financial impact of their monarchies, simply for tourism (obviously that doesn’t go for countries like Australia or Canada, but those are special circumstances). Or that they country might simply break apart without (Belgium, and even from a purely political position, no I don’t think they should split into two countries). Although who knows what would happen if the Greeks would put Pavlos on the throne, Greece has enough tourist attractions that are far far older and far more interesting than cadet members of the S-H-S-G’s after all, so maybe that’s not an impact factor. Who knows, my Greek friends were all born during the diaspora and have never lived in the country so they couldn’t tell.
Edit: And yes, I’m aware that Prince Albert is currently running his country into the ground, which is why I said, (quasi) absolute power is a bad idea.
Belgium is an interesting analogy, because the royal family is a factor of unity over there. Juan Carlos was also instrumental in making the transition from a Francist country to a constitutional democracy. However, the last good and selfless thing any royal did for Greece was when the Crown Prince Constantine was Marshall of the Greek army in the Balkan Wars. That was 1913. Of course, typical of his family, the minute the elected prime minister did something he didn’t approve of, he instigated an argument that brought the country to the brink of civil war.
About the tourist thing, as long as the Greek state manages to make museums out of the Tatoi palace (which belongs to the state after the European Court of Human Rights ruling) and the Mon Repos, whenever that’s settler, I don’t see how restoring monarchy could attract tourists. With the exception of the only true celebrity royals, the English, I doubt having a monarch has any kind of tourist appeal (who goes to Oslo anyway?). Furthermore, even if there were, the money that would have to go to maintaining the royal family would most likely outweight potential windfall profits from tourism.
But what’s more important, the Greek people just plainly don’t like them. Nicholaos seems to like Greece more than Pavlos, who seems to be regarding the locals as antipathetic natives – Nicholaos seem to regard us as sympathetic natives. Perhaps in 50 years or so when the memories of the family’s deeds are forgotten, and when they succumb to choosing a SURNAME, the can obtain Greek passports (right now they have Italian passports with the surname De Grecia) and enter into politics or what not, like the Bulgarian one did.
Oh, as I said, I don’t think the tourism thing applies to Greece, too many interesting stuff there. Same for, say, Italy – although with Italy, I’m not sure of they’d be worse off with the current pretender (who is in jail) or their current government (which still is the best one they’ve managed to cobble together in half a century). But imagine GB suddenly abolished the monarchy (which isn’t true for the Commonwealth of course, really just mean the main island), a good part of the tourism would simply break away. As for “outweight[ing] potential windfalls”, plenty of people do go to Britain or Norway or Sweden for ‘the sights’, for a glimpse at a lived-in, or at least worked-in palace (which is even the case here, half the castles and stuff wouldn’t be half an interesting if they weren’t lived-in and plenty of people go to Oslo, actually, at least dying of heat there is unlikely). Or if not only for that, it’s an additional incentive and may just tip the scale in favour of spending a holiday in London as opposed to ohidunno, Dublin.
The Bulgarians, the Czechs, the Serbs (although not in political position)…
Oh, of course the surname debate, how could I forget the bloody surname debate. Ah right, I ignored it intentionally; mostly because I can see both points there and discussing it is therefore pointless. (And might end up somewhat schizophrenic.) Really, the least of anyone’s worries and a formality at best (for both sides!).
Why don’t we agree that we don’t agree? It’s obviously not under my influence what the Greek state does (ah, an averted financial crisis, a dream, a dream to dream at night when dreaming is supposed to happen), or what the Greek people want or hell, what the Greek branch of the S-H-S-B’s wants, nor would I want to have that kind of influence. I made a comment, yes. Which, quite honestly? Doesn’t deserve the attention you’ve paid it, because in that instance it was very throwaway and I was looking for the lost baby belly (which would be worth much more of a rant, btw). It didn’t carry any political heat, I don’t want to start an insurgence against any specific government or form of government (well okay, maybe one should consider that against certain forms of government), hell I’m not even a royalist for my own country or others. YHR, both incarnations, is a means of entertainment, a diversion, a tool for overwrought minds with too much analytical crap going on in them (that would be mine, in case you were wondering).
Oh and yes, that was my last comment on the topic, for now anyway.