Venezuela, Chavez and Petro Caribe

A few weeks ago Venezuela’s duly elected dictator El Caudillo Hugo Chavez was reported by be in grave condition and had once again gone over to Cuba to receive medical treatment including chemotherapy , during this time there was great speculation on whether or not he would actually make it out and  even if  he does would he still be able to carry out his duties as president, it was even reported in the news that he had designated a successor should he be unable to carry on,  the last  news item regarding Chavez stated that he was back in Venezuela and recovering, much to the relief of his allies and the annoyance of his enemies. Throughout this whole scenario there were tensions and uncertainty not only in Venezuela but also in other places including Jamaica and the Caribbean, this of course is due to one thing in particular: Petro Caribe

                                                              

The Petro Caribe deal is a driving pillar of Venezuela’s foreign policy in the Caribbean region since Chavez first took office, the agreements sets out conditions for the provision of Venezuelan oil to signatories of the agreement under which Caribbean countries would be able to purchase oil at 5% -50% of market price up front while the remainder would be payable over 25 year period with a 1% per annum interest rate. Sounds good right, of course being  realists many Caribbean leaders decided to sign the agreement,  so now we are getting oil at a reduced rate, which we don’t have to be worry about paying for at the moment, everything should be OK right? So why then do I still feel uneasy about this deal?

Maybe it’s because I think that Chavez  is not just being benevolent or giving out of the goodness of his heart but rather  he has an ulterior motive, like all of his other policies, the Petro Caribe is filled with overtones of Bolivarianism, ever since he first came to office Chavez  has justified everything he has done by claiming that it’s all a part of the Bolivarian revolution, it’s the reason why he is so critical of the United States and other western countries which he sees as neo-colonizers, it’s why he had the Venezuelan constitution  altered to remove term limits on his presidency, it’s the reason he has close relations with Iran and other fundamentalist Islamic states  and that’s why he urged the creation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (also called ALBA) to rival other efforts at continental integration such as MERCUSUR or to halt the FTAA agreement from being signed.

                                         

The Petro Caribe is simply an attempt by Chavez to gain a foothold in the Caribbean and so far he seems to succeeding, three Commonwealth Caribbean countries are already ALBA members and he’s still trying to get the rest of us to sign up. When talking Caribbean –Venezuela relations Chavez has no better friend that Vincentian Prime Minister Comrade Ralph Gonsalves, a very shady character who tries to imitate the likes of Chavez and Fidel Castro, he even tried to have the constitution amended to turn St Vincent and the Grenadines into a socialist republic with himself President and Dictator  fortunately he was defeated in a referendum (Her Majesty should have revoked his Prime Ministerial appointment and imprisoned him for this gross act of attempted treason), most Caribbean leaders while not idolizing Chavez still cannot see him for what he really is.

                                             

The Petro Caribe deal is not a generous arrangement as some persons think but rather a devious

attempt by the Chavez regime to make us economically dependent on him for energy and in the long term to place us in a state of high indebtedness to his country , Petro Caribe is not stable but is dependent a Chavez himself, something that was clearly demonstrated last week and prior to that during the Venezuelan Presidential elections earlier this year  when the opposition rival Henrique Capriles promised to repeal the agreement if elected which would have left the Caribbean in  deep trouble of high debt to Venezuela while having to find a new energy partner, sure we can breathe a sigh of relief for  now because  the deal deems safe at present but Comrade Hugo won’t be around forever, what will they do when he’s gone.

                                

Hugo Chavez is nothing if not a master of lies and propaganda, his so called new-found Bolivarian philosophy is nothing more than another name for his own version of communism to impose his own ideas not only on the people of Venezuela but also on the rest of Latin America and even the Caribbean, other Latin Caudillos such as Evil (ahem I mean Evo) Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Christine Kitchener from Argentina and who could forget Hugo’s best friend Raul Castro in Cuba are all part of it , of course not everyone in the region has bought into Chavez’s ridiculous ideas, thank God for sensible leadership in Chile and Brazil

Prime Ministers in the Commonwealth Caribbean would do well to take heed, the writing is on the wall, Venezuela is NOT our friend one only has to wait to see what will happen after El Caudillo Chavez exits the scene as he will eventually have to like all other leftist dictators whether he wants to or not and his so called Bolivarian revolution is consigned to the dustbin of history 

Royal Baby and Succession Rules-Part II

In last week’s post I touched on the matter of succession to the Throne of the Commonwealth Realms and I wish to continue on that trajectory, I still maintain that changing the rules of succession is a bad initiative because it would open up an entire can up of worms that would be best left untouched, this post intends to point out some of the potential problems that might arise. 
                                                                                                                                                                      

In 1917 King George V drafted a set of letters patent that outlined the composition of the royal family, according to the letters patent the style and title of Royal Highness was limited to the Children of the Sovereign, the Agnatic Grandchildren of the Sovereign and  the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, hence the reason why there is no Prince Peter or Princess Zara as children cannot inherit royal titles from the feminine line unless their mother is the Queen even if their grandmother is.   

                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                                              

In relation to that same issue, we must also take into consideration what will happen a generation from now, something I’m sure today’s political leaders in the Commonwealth have not stopped to consider while making this judgment call since they will all  be either retired or dead by then. We all know perfectly well that whenever a Prince gets married outside the royal family then his wife automatically becomes a British Princess by marriage unless of course such a union contravenes the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, the reverse is not true there is no way a man can ever become a prince automatically by marriage to a princess. Some will no doubt raise the point that three Queens regnant had husbands that were made Princes this is only partially true,  first of all, the 3 Queens in question had married foreign princes not commoners so their husbands had the title of prince from birth anyway and the secondly none of them was made a British Prince automatically by marriage, Prince Albert and Prince Philip were created as British Princes by special letters patent which did not even come on the day the marriage but years after the wedding and only after they became the Queen’s official consort while Prince George of Denmark while given a peerage was never recognized as a Prince of the Realm. Given the trajectory of royal weddings for several decades it’s likely that the Duke of Edinburgh will be the last born foreign royal to marry into our royal family and so what if this hypothetical firstborn daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is named heiress presumptive and then marries a non-royal will he then be named a Prince by marriage similar to what they did to Daniel Westling in Sweden? 

And let us not forget that according to tradition the heir apparent and only him has the right to the titles Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay both of which are automatic, he also has the sole right to use the style Prince of Wales this however is not automatic but rather is a gift of the sovereign bestowed to his (or her) heir apparent, note that an heir presumptive has no right to use either title hence there has never been a Princess of Wales or Duchess of Cornwall in her own right as she could have easily been displaced by the birth of a male heir apparent, I wonder if the Commonwealth leaders have taken time to iron out all these and many more grievances before they make a final decision.

         

                                        

Another thing that is of real concern is the origin of this mode of succession, equal primogeniture was first originated in Sweden in 1980 and as such I must take issue with that for two main reasons, the first one has to do with the fact that equal primogeniture was in fact an amendment to the 1974 instrument of government, the very same one is which the Riksdag stripped the King of all his power and consigned him to be a mere figurehead, of course there are many who also consider the Queen a figurehead mainly because elected politicians are the ones who conduct the daily business of government, while this is true the monarch is by no means a figurehead and still have a great many constitutional duties to perform most of which are done via letters patent, orders in council and the like, but it’s quite clear that the Queen is  still sovereign, the parliament, cabinet,  civil service, foreign service,  court system and  armed forces in every single Commonwealth realm are all merely acting in her name hence she is the State personified, this is not so in Sweden where the King is not even Commander-in-Chief anymore but is consigned to be a mere bystander in the entire governance process while all his powers are transferred to various officials like the Speaker of the House who appoints the Prime Minister who is in turn Commander in Chief of the armed forces, is that really the kind of system we want to adopt where the influence of the monarchy in government is so weak which could only strengthen republican movements especially in realms like Jamaica and Australia which both have openly republican Prime Ministers?, following Sweden’s trajectory will cause all the Commonwealth realms to become republics in all but name we must be careful not to go down that slippery slope.

And speaking of following Sweden’s tradition, whatever happened to “Rule Britannia”? (Britannia here meaning not only Britain but all nations with a strong British heritage), what happened to the good old days when we used to be the trendsetters, when we lead and others followed?  What happened to the pride we used to have as the greatest alliance of nations to ever exist of the face of the earth?  Why should we be following what countries like Sweden or Denmark or the Netherlands is doing when their political culture and realities is so very different from ours? , they should be following us not the other way around .Why do we need to import models used by other countries and then claim to make it our own, this is oddly similar to the pro-republican argument is some realms that the monarchy is colonial and antiquated and wail about the need to establish their “own form of government”when all they are really doing is copying republican models used by other countries and trying to pass it off as an original nationalistic invention.

As a conservative, a traditionalist and a true Jamaican monarchist I still think that tinkering with the rules of succession is a terrible idea (especially since while all other realm governments are debating succession changes, the Jamaican government is capitalizing on the opportunity to debate abolishing the monarchy instead), the Act of Settlement was put in place for a reason and contrary to the propaganda we are hearing, these reasons are still relevant today as they were centuries ago.

These are just a few thoughts for the Commonwealth Heads of Government to ponder under before making that drastic step which could only lead to a host of other unsolved problems.

 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 

Royal Baby and Succession Rules-Part I

Yesterday morning I woke up to the most delightful news, Prince William Duke of Cambridge, (son of Charles, Prince of Wales and grandson of Her Majesty the Queen) and his beautiful wife Catherine Duchess of Cambridge are finally having a baby, this is the news that the world has been waiting for ever since their epic almost movie like wedding on April 29, 2011, monarchist all over the world and especially in the Commonwealth are celebrating with them in their happiness, for many of us the timing could not be more perfect, it seems like the perfect end to this Diamond Jubilee (or Diamond and Golden in Jamaica’s case see: http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2012/10/jamaicas-double-jubilee-2012.html) year in which London became  the Capital of the world hosting everything from the main Diamond Jubilee celebrations (other celebrations were held across the Commonwealth) to the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Speculations of a royal pregnancy have been floating around ever since they first got married and even before the day of the wedding, these suppositions reached their highest point earlier this year while the Duke and Duchess were on a tour of the Pacific, but as many of these rumours were being spread by royal watchers I did not make much of it then, but now it has been confirmed by official sources from the Courts of Buckingham Palace, St James Palace and Clarence House, it is further stated that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are indeed very pleased but in my opinion I don’t think anybody is more delighted (a part from the couple themselves) than the Prince of Wales who is finally going to be a grandfather, heartiest congratulations goes out to him as well as to the parents

With the announcement of this news, issues with serious implications have been brought back on the agenda namely the rules of royal succession, ever since the royal wedding last year the British Government has been proposing the idea of changing the rules of succession from male preference to one of equal primogeniture a practice started by Sweden and has since spread throughout the rest of Europe (Sweden must be proud to be the trendsetters in something for once). Things got more intense  when their Prime Minister David Cameron made the same pitch at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in November 2011,  Since the monarchy is a multinational entity the United Kingdom  could never change the rules  on its own unless it wants to split the Crown but rather it head to wait to get unanimous agreement from all 16 nations under the Crown (together known as the Commonwealth Realms) from all indications it seem as though the Prime Ministers all approved the new changes. Since then no Realm Government has taken any further steps to make these changes an official part of their legislation by putting it before their parliaments they all claim to be waiting on Great Britain to make the first move.

The basic tenets of the Rule of Succession are spelled out in the 1701 Act of Settlement which basically states that the Succession of the Throne was that male primogeniture meaning that sons of the monarch have the right to succeed before daughters, it also guaranteed the Sovereign’s position as Head of the Church of England (Anglican Church) forbidding anybody who is Roman Catholic or even married to a Roman Catholic from ever wearing the Crown, this last bit was put in directly as safeguard from ever allowing the descendants of  James Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales from ever being ruler (or else instead of Queen Elizabeth II, we would have ended up with Francis Duke of Bavaria as our King Francis I), these are the laws that the Commonwealth Prime Ministers want to have repealed .

I can still vividly remember the  rigorous debates that took place last year across several monarchist groups and networks with many different royalist from all over the Commonwealth  giving their views,  to be frank if I remember correctly the issue almost split the monarchist world in half dividing it  into two main factions one side being liberal and modernist approve the changes to the succession rules while the other side was more conservative and traditionalist who opposed the changes and want the rules to remain as they are in the Act of Settlement ,we still have yet to come to a mutual agreement no doubt conservative  monarchists were fuming over the alterations of the rules (I know this because I was among them ). The modernist will tell you that it’s time to change the rules because it’s the 21^st century and it’s time to  eliminate that kind of bias based on gender and religion, in my opinion that in itself is a ridiculous argument because bias is  the whole point of monarchy anyway, that argument sounds dangerously close to the one put forward by republicans who claim that in the 21^st century  why do we still have a monarch according the to the manager of Republic ( a group of retards calling for the Commonwealth to abandon the monarchy) “the new changes still discriminate against everyone who was not born in the House of Windsor “ seems to me like the liberals are bordering on that kind of reasoning. Quite frankly the removing bias argument is a bogus one because all they are really doing is replacing gender based bias with an age based one so what kind of bias free system are they really talking about?, it’s better to leave well enough alone. The conservative  position is that  monarchy is something that should be based on tradition coming down through the centuries, or else what kind of monarchy do we have, moves like these only serve to weaken the power and influence of the Crown, next thing we’ll hear coming from them is a proposal that the Queen should no longer be considered sovereign, like they do in Sweden where the King is Head of State but the people are still sovereign effectively making it a republic in all but name, we in the Commonwealth Realms should not follow these trends but instead take steps to strengthen the position of our joint monarchy not weaken it.

On the matter of religion, some persons claim that the ban on having a Catholic monarch or even a Catholic consort does not seem to cause as much controversy as it used to, however the Queen’s position in the Church of England always comes up for debate, In this case the Queen has no official religious position outside the UK itself and as such the other realms are not as concerned with this issue. In my opinion I have no objections to the anti-Catholic rules although some say it’s not as relevant as it used to be in the 17^th or 18^th centuries, that may be true but growing up in a  staunchly anti-Catholic  church I was never a fan of the Catholics anyway and so am quite happy and content to never have to swear my allegiance to a Catholic ruler.

In concluding I congratulate Prince and Princess William once on their joyous news, I hope everything goes well with them and that the Duchess gives birth to a bouncing baby boy (yes I’m making a prediction from now) a worthy male heir to the throne, that will give the liberals something to go fume about, don’t get me wrong I’m by no means sexist I know women can also make great monarchs, the last 60 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign is proof of that  but I still think that politicians tinkering with the rules is a bad idea and that succession to crown should remain exactly as it is now.